As Ukrainian filmmakers, we’re painfully aware we may be documenting our country’s final days

It is impossible to talk about our future, as we do not know if Ukraine will exist tomorrow. Now every frame may be the last

Sergey Lysenko, the director of ‘Brothers in Arms’, is now in the Kyiv region, documenting everything that happens (Sergey Lysenko)

Today, the attention of the world is focused on Ukraine. Over the past eight years, ever since the Ukrainian-Russian war actually began, the popularity and the recognition of our country has grown rapidly. This is largely due to the cultural front. The whole world is now talking about Ukrainian designers, singers, music video makers and directors.

Indeed, events that began in 2014 and now continue to unfold have become a huge impetus for the culture of Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians made a revolution happen, changing the government and removing the pro-Russian president in order to remain free and have their own voice. This angered the Russian authorities and saw the immediate annexation of Crimea, with Russian troops entering the territory of Ukraine. They ruthlessly killed civilians and carried out propaganda activities in the east of the country, just as they are doing now

Until 2014, the culture of Ukraine was in darkness. For many years, the state did not invest any funds in the development of cinema and other creative industries. Directors from the Russian Federation came to Ukraine to shoot their films here, which were then shown all over the country. Our film market was their market.

Talented Ukrainian directors, actors, costume designers, make-up artists and many others had no prospects. The road to the world of cinema was closed for them. Cultural activity is a litmus test that reflects what is happening around us, and, in many respects, reflects the political sphere too. Culture is freedom of speech, and this is something an authoritarian government will never tolerate. We were powerless and could not resist propaganda in the cultural sector.

After Maidan, Ukrainian cinema began to flourish. The economy improved, state funding for films appeared, volunteer initiatives emerged, and we began to rebuild the Ukrainian cinema from scratch. Cinema is a practical thing: if you do not do it, then the quality will not increase. From 2015 to today, we have been rapidly improving the quality of our films and have received tremendous support from the audience.

Now everything Ukrainian has become sacred. All entertainment content produced by the aggressor country has been replaced – and not because it was somehow blocked by our government. We are a people who love freedom, so it is difficult for us to forbid something. The view of the Ukrainians themselves has changed; a large-scale Ukrainisation has taken place. As a result, local film studios began to produce good films in various genres. Ukrainian films have become much bigger and more noticeable on the world stage; we can be found among the participants of festivals like Berlinale, Sundance, the Venice Film Festival, and Cannes.

Together with Myroslav Hai, co-founder of our production company MIR&CO, we spent asix years working on the film Brothers in Arms, documenting everything that happened in the Donbas region. These short stories from the Russian-Ukrainian war were collected during our movement along the front line with humanitarian supplies.

Our production not only shoots fiction and documentary films, but also has a fund of the same name to help the armed forces of Ukraine. This film reveals the life of Ukrainian soldiers “at zero”, conversations with the inhabitants of the “grey zone”, military clashes, jokes, funerals, road adventures and shelling – it all adds up to a single journey to another world, the world of war.

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Brothers in Arms has a couple of functions. Initially, we wanted to share with the world what was happening by showing the tyranny and authoritarianism that hid behind the false face of “democracy” in Russia, a country which openly attacked its neighbouring state for purely ambitious reasons. We needed to reveal the truth, to show our soldiers boldly opposing this terrorism for more than a year, and also to open the eyes of many Ukrainians and people in the western world, who were subjected to the propaganda of the occupiers and lived under the illusion that none of these were happening.

After local screenings of the film, we decided to release it to the broader public so that as many people as possible can see the truth. Indeed, today we are waging not only a physical war with tanks and missiles, but an informational, cultural one.

On 24 February 2022, this largely ignored boil burst, and overnight the entire country became a war zone the likes of which Europe had not seen since the Second World War. Our production does not stand aside. Co-founder Myroslav Hai is an assistant to the commander-in-chief on the front lines. The MIR&CO Foundation is engaged in humanitarian activity, supplying medicines, clothes and food to civilians, and our production continues to document everything that happens.

Sergey Lysenko, the director of Brothers in Arms, is now in the Kyiv region, documenting everything that happens and sending the footage directly to Sweden in order to preserve this moment in history. The Ukrainian film community is waging an information war and declaring a boycott of Russian cultural propaganda. Everyone is doing what they can.

We can only believe that someday we will release a documentary about the war against the biggest tyrant of the 21st century, and then we will return to normal life. However, it is impossible to talk about our future, as we do not know if Ukraine will exist tomorrow. Now every frame may be the last.

Kyrylo Nechmonia is a co-owner of the Ukrainian production company MIR&CO