You may have watched quite a few documentaries about Ukraine and the impact of Russia’s war against the country in recent years. But Yuliya Hontaruk To die to livewhich had its world premiere in the Special Screenings Program of the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), takes a long-term perspective and journey.
The film is directed by Ten seconds It follows three Ukrainian volunteers over the course of 12 years of war: “From the front lines in 2014, through the agonizing return to a life that no longer quite fit, and back into the fire again in 2022.”
The KVIFF website describes it as “a quietly devastating film about the impossible task of making peace with death and the relentless desire to live.”
To die to live It explores the stories and traumas of Shakhta, the dancer, and Potter, who volunteered for the army to fight in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Although the terrible things they experienced during their two years at the front accompany them every second of their existence, they try to return to civilian life. But the Russian invasion in 2022 forces them to face war again.
Written and directed by Huntarock, the film is produced by Babylon 13 and features cinematography by Denis Strashny, Yuri Gruzinov and Huntarock. The editors are Roman Ljubi, Uys Olti, Mykola Bazarkin, Hontaruk, Irina Stetsenko, Pavlo Zelenov, and Petro Tsymbal. Producers are Hontaruk, Ivana Khitsinska, Aleksandra Bratychenko, Uldis Chikulis, Katarina Crnakova and Ihor Savchenko.
“Twelve years ago, I followed three young Ukrainian volunteers to the front lines. I thought I was making a film about war. I was wrong,” Hontaruk said in a statement to the director. “When the Minsk agreements came and they returned home, I followed them back. That’s when the real movie began. What I witnessed in the years that followed was a profound and painful journey.”
She concludes: “What began as a picture of conflict became something I never expected: a film about transformation, about the long and difficult path back to oneself, about how stubbornly life insists on going on even in the shadow of death. This is not really a film about war. It is about what war leaves inside people, and what they do with it.”
Although it is a “sensitive” document, “at its core it is life-affirming,” says Hontaruk. “Because despite everything, despite all the loss and the rupture and the years of waiting, life has proven itself stronger than death. Time and time again, I am the man I choose. This is the film I set out to make, even when I didn’t know it yet.”
