OUT OF COMPETITION A country destroyed by the Russian invasion. The filmmakers take us on a journey beyond the images in the news to an on-site experience of war, deepening the notion of what it means to take part in one.
W Ukraine, co-directed by the debutant Piotr Pawlus, that has worked previously as a DoP, and Tomasz Wolski, whose previous works of Poland’s historical political archive An Ordinary Country and 1970 have been shown in our past editions, is a portrait of that neighbouring country under Russian invasion.
A portrait of today – and an archive for the future – it takes us from the cinema seat to the streets and daily routines of the Ukrainian people today. More than a denunciation of a war of which we are all aware, what the film does through its direct recording is to alert us to the most terrible thing: life goes on. The streets of Ukraine look like an open-air museum of a battle that is either over or far away. But no, the war is still there, it’s still here, extending itself unbearably over time, altering the landscape and the daily rhythms under which Ukrainians, but also we, have adapted to continue living. (Vanja Milena)