This year, Piotr Pawlus, the Polish director of the film In Ukraine, actively participated in the screenings of Travelling Docudays UA. Despite challenging weather and transportation conditions, he toured Ukraine from November 29 to December 5, taking part in four festival screenings in Uzhhorod, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, and Chortkiv within this brief timeframe.

Throughout the discussions, he openly shared his experiences in capturing a full-scale invasion, explained the film’s underlying concepts, and listened first-hand to the audience’s impressions of the film. 

Piotr Pawlus originally intended to make a film about Ukraine in the Carpathians, drawing from his visits to Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia, including Verkhovyna. However, the director’s plans took a turn due to the full-scale invasion. Engaging in humanitarian aid and assisting in the evacuation of Ukrainians, as reported by Suspilne News, he quickly transitioned to filming the war to document and showcase what lay beyond the typical media perspective. For just 60 days, he filmed in Ukraine, sharing the experience of explosions with locals and residing in the Kharkiv subway.

Director Piotr Pawlus. Photo: Suspilne Ternopil

In Ukraine was a collaborative effort between him and Tomasz Wolski, with Wolski handling the editing of the footage Pawel shot. The duo engaged in discussions throughout the film’s creation, jointly seeking a sensitive approach to portray the lives of Ukrainians under martial law. The outcome of their creative partnership is a form of silent observation, where Polish filmmakers aim to convey more while relying less on the Western media’s typical news narratives about the war. The film captures everyday moments and the subtle, sometimes barely visible emotions of Ukrainian citizens – a portrayal of daily life where destruction and the will to live coexist, despite the aggression of the invaders and russia’s imperialist encroachment on Ukraine’s integrity. 

The first screening of In Ukraine with the director took place on December 1 in Uzhhorod. The audience included internally displaced Ukrainians, whose stories closely overlapped with those of the film’s protagonists. On December 2, undeterred by the weather, Piotr Pawlus shared his own memories of the onset of the full-scale war in Ukraine during the screening of the Travelling Docudays UA in Ivano-Frankivsk. The event, with both the screening and discussion, was attended by correspondents from Suspilne.

“The first visits took me to Odesa, Mykolaiv, and villages in the Kherson region during the second half of March and early April 2022. These trips, totalling five, took place while I resided in Kyiv. From there, I travelled to different settlements in the Kyiv region, such as Borodianka. I arrived in Borodianka just as it was being de-occupied. The area was heavily mined, making it scary just to be there and move around. My final trip occurred in the winter of 2022. One year ago, I was in Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region, situated 5–7 kilometres from the border,” shared the director.

“There are things you won’t read in the newspapers or news broadcasts – the anticipation for food, children playing on playgrounds against the backdrop of destroyed houses, people commuting to work, carrying bags of food with ruined shops in the background. The main objective [of the film] is to show the real lives of Ukrainians amidst such harsh realities. I considered it my duty to document what is happening here.”

Travelling Docudays UA in Ternopil

During the screening on December 3 in Ternopil, the audience at Travelling Docudays UA included Serhii Andrushko, a soldier who had recently returned from Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. After viewing In Ukraine, he shared his impressions with Suspilne Ternopil: “I wanted to compare what I saw with what the director experienced. In the film, I noticed that there are still many people in [frontline] cities, including children. I visited places where you could see the elderly. The film also shows areas affected by hostilities, where the marks of missile strikes are still evident. It’s all true and as it is there. I saw it with my own eyes.”

Serhii Andrushko. Photo: Suspilne Ternopil

During an audience conversation, Piotr Pawlus revealed the origin of the film’s title: “Tomasz wrote it down when he began editing the film. He labelled the project In Ukraine because they used to say ‘in the Ukraine.’ However, it started to evolve into ‘in Ukraine.’ He signed it so to make it as simple as possible, and it has remained that way. Because the protagonist of the film is… There is no single protagonist. The entire nation is the protagonist.”

On December 4, the day before his departure for Poland, the director presented the documentary in Chortkiv, where the audience also discussed the search for sensitive ways to document the war. 

The screenings of the Travelling Docudays UA continue – discover more about where you can catch the film In Ukraine in our event digest for Zhytomyr region and Zhmerynka.

Main photo: A still from In Ukraine. 

The 20th Travelling Docudays UA is supported by the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine, and the US Embassy in Ukraine. Opinions, conclusions, or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of the governments, charities, or companies of these countries. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of its authors.