The feature-length documentary “Veterans’ Theatre” by director and director of photography Yuliia Bolshynska has won the Best Documentary Film award at the Cine Paris international film festival. The Association “Watch Ukrainian!” reports this.
According to the description, “Veterans’ Theatre” is a film about returning to life through art. At its centre are male and female veterans with severe injuries, amputations and psychological trauma, who work together on the production of “Aeneid” by director Olha Semioshkina.
For more than a year, Bolshynska documented the creative process — from the first rehearsals to the stage. In the film’s conception, the production “Aeneid” becomes not only a theatrical process, but a space where the protagonists discover new possibilities and gradually regain a sense of a full life.
“This is not a story about pity. It is a story about strength, dignity, creativity and a society that must learn to stand alongside veterans not as people to be pitied, but as people who create, work and improve the world around them,” the “Watch Ukrainian!” team commented.
The Association also added that the award is an opportunity to tell the world about the Ukrainian experience of “therapy through culture” and about Veterans’ Theatre as a practice that was born in Ukraine.
The concept’s author and executive producer was Andrii Rizol. The film was created by the Association “Watch Ukrainian!” with the support of the “MHP-Hromadi” Charitable Foundation and the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine.
About Yuliia Bolshynska:
- a Ukrainian director, cinematographer and film editor;
- co-director and cinematographer of the film “Palianytsia”, which this year received the Impact Award for Peace for its impact on society in the cause of peace at the Ethos Film Award festival in Santa Monica;
- among other projects Bolshynska has worked on are “Culture vs War”, “The Will to Win — Will to Victory!”, “Soldiers of Song” (Armed with Song) and “Solomiia”.
About Veterans’ Theatre:
- a cultural and educational theatre project founded in 2024 by the communications department of the Command of the Territorial Defence Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Playwrights’ Theatre;
- the theatre’s artistic director is director, actor and serviceman Akhtem Seitablaiev;
- it aims to combine psychological rehabilitation and creative fulfilment for veterans who have lived through traumatic experiences, teach veterans to write plays professionally and tell their own stories through theatre, and help them integrate into society.
- the production “Aeneid” is based on the poem of the same name by Ivan Kotliarevskyi and interpreted by “Veterans’ Theatre”. It aims to turn the literary work into an emotional conversation about war, memory and the power of words.
About Cine Paris:
- an international film festival in Paris, now in its fourth consecutive year;
- it aims to bring together artists, creators and filmmakers, and to showcase new talents and works.