Viktor Shevchenko

Twenty-five-year-old Vadym earns a living recording and selling all kinds of different sounds; nevertheless, he’d rather exchange his life in Kyiv for a better future in far-flung Canada. Thus, when he gets a generous job offer which might help him realise his dream, he jumps at the chance; he soon sets off to record the sounds of animals indigenous to Ukraine and also a rare bird native to the Carpathians. The situation proves somewhat more complicated when Vadym’s companion on the trip turns out to be his mother… To the sounds of a synthesized music score, debuting Ukrainian director Antonio Lukich unfolds a visually creative road movie, in which he demonstrates a highly unusual talent for constructing tragicomic situations.

Despite the war, school life continues in Ukraine, with pupils and teachers striving to continue learning even under constant threat. The film is a mosaic of the everyday lives of teachers and students from different corners of Ukraine.

Men on the streets get chased by stares. Someone’s walking a chihuahua, someone’s out jogging, but everyone’s uneasy glances are fixed at Petro and Andriy — recruitment officers inspecting military documents, holiday or not. When the officers encounter the freelance IT guy, Sashko, the young man has two requests before he’s taken away: that they stop by the store so he can buy food for his cat, and that he is allowed to bless his Easter bread.

Ukrainian actor Pavlo Aldoshyn played the lead role in the movie "Sniper. White Raven" based on the real events of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Pavlo joined the Armed Forces. At the authors' request, the soldier returned from the frontline to Kyiv for the first time in order to play a civilian.

At noon, in the shade of riverside trees — as if in the middle of life — you lose something. Yet love is as strong as the river. A man is going through abrupt changes in his life — both personal and caused by the war. He spends a day alone by the river, revisiting a forgotten hobby — fishing. A sense of love and acceptance fills him, but only for a brief moment — he must return to the war.