Synopsis
Militantropos, the opening text explains, is “a persona adopted by humans entering a state of war.” It’s the title of this film exposing how the Russian full-scale invasion has permeated all facets of life in Ukraine. Starting from the moment the first evacuation trains depart from Kyiv’s central station, the film pieces together everyday lives transformed by war. We see civilians train in combat skills, men head to the front, crops wither, and mothers and young widows grieve. And we hear that constant, ominous rumble in the distance. In thoughtfully crafted scenes, we witness the evolution of an instinct to survive, and an enduring need for compassion.
Awards
Union of Ukrainian Film Critics Prize, DOCU/UKRAINE Competition, Docudays UA International Documentary Human Rights Film Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2025.
Yelizaveta Smith
Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Yelizaveta Smith studied mathematics, but later graduated from Kyiv National University of Theatre and Cinema as a film director. In 2014, she co-founded the film company Tabor Production. After the Ukrainian revolution, she started volunteer work with children in Mykolaivka in the Donetsk area, where the war partly destroyed the city. This process became the starting point for the film School No 3, which premiered at Berlinale 2017, where it won the Grand Prix in Generation 14+ program. She directed the documentary play Wo es brennt in Constance theatre in Germany in Spring of 2016, and was the main director of the social theater project Class act East-West that same summer. Smith participated in the Berlinale Talents Campus 2018. She is a member of the Ukrainian Film Academy and the European Film Academy.
Filmography
Vizit (2012), School No 3 (2017), Tsymbalist Petro (2018), Solitude (2019), Rozirvy kolo (2021), Militantropos (co-directed with Alina Gorlova and Simon Mozgovyi, 2025).
Alina Gorlova
Born in 1992, Alina Eduardivna Gorlova is a Ukrainian filmmaker, director, and screenwriter, specialising in documentaries. Gorlova studied at the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University from 2008 to 2012. She was inducted into the Ukrainian Film Academy in 2017 and was named as an Honored Artist of Ukraine in 2021. Several of her documentaries have received recognition, for example This Rain Will Never Stop winning Best Feature-Length Film award at the Festival dei Popoli in Florence and Best Cinematic Documentary at the 66th Cork International Film Festival in Ireland in 2020.
Filmography
The First Step in the Clouds (2012), Babushka (2014), Kholodny Yar. Intro (2016), Invisible Battalion (co-directed with Iryna Tsilyk and Svetlana Lishchynska, 2017), No Obvious Signs (2018), This Rain Will Never Stop (2020), Militantropos (co-directed with Yelizaveta Smith and Simon Mozgovyi).
Simon Mozgovyi
Born in 1992, Simon Mozgovyi is a Ukrainian filmmaker, screenwriter, film editor, producer and actor. He studied Cinema and Television Arts at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture (BA) After graduating in 2013, he went on to study an advanced-level course of dramaturgy in Kyiv, where he began acting at the DAKH Theater (2013-2018). Now he works as a freelance filmmaker.
Filmography
The Winter Garden’s Tale (2017), The Winter Garden’s Tale (feature-length, 2018), Salt from Bonneville (2021), Militantropos (co-directed with Yelizaveta Smith and Alina Gorlova, 2025).
