Den Ukrainskoho Dobrovoltsia

Volodymyr Tykhy is one of the founding members of the filmmaking collective “Babylon '13”, which was already active at the time of the Maidan protests. The footage of everyday wartime existence, shot since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, comes from twelve cameramen and was filmed on March 14, “Volunteer Day”, a day dedicated to the volunteers of the war. It begins the night before with a ride down a subway tunnel where people have fled and are waiting for the rocket attacks to end. Amidst the frighteningly cowered silence, human warmth is exchanged. The camera remains emotional and yet keeps its distance: When a man in the suburbs scouts the situation with a remote-controlled drone, volunteers salute at a monument, activists cook for the defenders of a Kyiv suburb, looters are tied to traffic signs with plastic wrapping tape and their trousers down. Patriotism alternates with the struggle for survival and the desperate search for a remnant of normalcy, for routine. Disturbing snapshots of the unimaginable: still functioning, close to the inhuman, emotionally on edge, and yet somewhere there is still hope. Otherwise, this film would not exist.

Weltspiegel: original version with English subtitles + German simultaneous translation
Glad-House/Obenkino: original version with English subtitles