Mercenario

Ukraine, le coût des armes

The story of a boy who, after being forced to leave Ukraine due to the Russian invasion, returns home to Zaporizhzhia through his mechanical avatar — a robotic dog he controls from his room in Poland.

On February 24, 2022, Yevhen, together with his friends, volunteered to join the first aid squad on the front line. They provided life-saving support and evacuation of the wounded. This film reveals the experiences of these young men for six months full of drama, despair, fear, hatred, bitterness, love, and, most importantly, faith in victory.

A family with five children flees the war raging in their home village on the Russian border. They end up in Mshanets, a farming village on the other side of the country, remote and unknown. Here the family starts building a new home. At the same time, two documentary makers come to the village, looking for a story. In the Lymar family they find the ideal characters for their film. But one day, when the renovation of their house is almost finished, the family disappears. The filmmakers go in search of their characters and along the way they try to find an answer to the question: what does a person need to feel at home?

As the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war's atrocities.

When Russia invaded, the women of Ukraine's leading contemporary dance group struggled to find purpose in their work. A search for new forms of resistance ultimately led them back to dance.

Four journalists talk about their experiences and share their testimonies of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The War Diary is a contemporary road movie that confronts history with the current reality of Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia. An extraordinary document leads Hakob Melkonyan to undertake the journey of a lifetime:

Viktor, who was born deaf, worships the figure of the samurai warrior. When bombs start falling on his countryside home in Kharkiv, his quasi-romantic obsession with war is put to the test.

During the Fall of 2021, Ukraine was slowly emerging from a global pandemic. Around this time, a film crew began shooting a documentary focused on the country’s wine-making regions. Then, in 2022, things took a sharp turn when Russia escalated a war against Ukraine. This film tells the stories of hard-working people who, against all odds, remain engaged in continuing in business.

Constantin is a Moldovan young man who emigrated to Italy when he was only a child. Right before his marriage, he decides to go back to Moldova to discover more about his cultural roots and understand about his identity. He found a different country, with a danger of an impending war and where he feel as a stranger.

Children beyond the war

Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman’s documentary, shot just before and after Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022, and featuring several interviews with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

A film about the collective psychological traumas of Ukrainians.

Set by a beautiful river canyon in Western Ukraine, a pacifist community with unique religious beliefs, sees their peaceful way of life gradually distressed by regular floods and eventually an unexpected war.

When Russia invaded in February 2022. Japanese director Akane Yamada travelled to the war zone to document an often-overlooked story - the fate of animals and the people who refuse to abandon them. Known for her work in disaster zones since Fukushima, Yamada witnessed animal welfare groups mobilising at the Polish border to help refugees and their pets, and followed Ukrainians who continued to adopt shelter animals amid the chaos. In Borodianka, near Kyiv, she uncovered the tragic deaths of shelter dogs left behind during occupation. Her three-year investigation led her deep into Ukraine's frontline regions, from flooded Kherson after the Kahkovka Dam's destruction to a children's hospital in Kyiv struck by a missile. Through the stories of people who refuse to abandon animals even amid the devastation of war, this documentary portrays the resilience and dignity of those who refuse to surrender to violence.

Since the uprising of a pro Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine in 2014, hundreds of women joined the army. Only a few made it to the front line. Filmmaker Masha embeds herself in the war zone to follow the daily life of three of them. By sharing the intimacy of these fighters, Masha soon becomes a victim of this brotherhood conflict jeopardizing this film and her life.

Shot in Kyiv, Bucha and Gostomel in May 2022, the film shows eyewitnesses of the beginning of the full-scale invasion and the following Russian occupation. The protagonists share their impressions of those days and their thoughts about the present and future.

In the aftermath of war-torn Borodyanka, Ukraine, powerful murals by renowned street artists Banksy and C215 appear on the war-damaged buildings, inspiring a group of young Italian restorers to preserve these symbols of hope and resilience, that represent the transformative power of art.

After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the lives of the doctors at Ohmatdyt changed forever. Yet they continue to save young patients and, with professionalism, care, tenderness, and even humor, hold on to a sense of normalcy that no longer exists.