‘We Are Ukraine’ — a love letter to magical Kyiv

Ukraine is watching the US presidential election very closely. There is a real fear that if Donald Trump wins, he will throw Ukraine under the bus.

The world will lose out if Ukraine ceases to exist. The city I call home, Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, is an undiscovered gem. If Russia takes over Ukraine the world will be robbed of a great treasure.

What many people don’t seem to understand is that if Russia does win the war and takes over Ukraine, they will kill everyone, physically, spiritually, or both. Just look at the occupied territories.

If the powerful leaders of the democratic, free world allow Russia to destroy Ukraine, which is a democratic European nation, with the whole world watching, without any real consequences, then what makes Russia believe that the West will strike back if it attacks a Nato country? Remember the Budapest Memorandum. It is all just pieces of paper. Theoretical mumbo jumbo. Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t care about any of that. If Ukraine falls, this evil will not stop. It is just warming up.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres was in Russia last week, attending the BRICS Summit. However, he did not respond to an invitation to attend the first Summit on Peace organised by Ukraine. Putin is a wanted criminal, according to The Hague, but the head of the UN has no problem meeting him.

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, confirmed last week that troops from North Korea were present in Russia.

“We have evidence that there are North Korean troops who have gone to … Russia. What exactly they are doing there is still to be determined. But, yes, there is evidence of North Korean forces in Russia,” said Austin.

If North Korean troops do enter the battlefield, and I am sure they will, then we are moving closer to World War 3.

Every week many civilians in Ukrainian cities are killed by Russian airstrikes. Soldiers are dying. Brave men, and women, defending Ukraine.  And yet Ukraine has so many restrictions and limitations thrust upon it. Let Ukraine fight back with all the weapons at its disposal.

Russia is playing the West non-stop with this nonsense “fear of escalation”. Furthermore, if the West allows Putin to annihilate Ukraine, it will set a very dangerous precedent. Many countries will conclude that they need nuclear weapons to avoid being invaded. A bigger nuclear arms race will be the result.

I was at home in Kyiv earlier this month. It was a joyous and sad time. It was good to be at home, but it is hard to smile, with so much constant death and destruction. The Russians appear to have a new terror strategy. They are striking the cities of Ukraine like never before. Kindergartens, apartment buildings, hospitals, malls. It will not stop unless Russia is stopped.

Before the war, Kyiv was on track to become one of Europe’s hot spots. The city was booming (even with all the problems Ukraine was facing, like corruption, Soviet mentality, etc.). Creativity and entrepreneurship were on the rise, and you would often hear that Kyiv was the next Berlin.

Innovation and creativity

In 2018 we started shooting a documentary about modern life in Kyiv. We had met many tech entrepreneurs in Kyiv and our starting point was the world of innovation and creativity in Ukraine’s magical capital.

What became evident during our filmmaking in 2018 and 2019 was that the negative stereotypes that surround Ukraine needed to be challenged. We focused on a fresh narrative, on the people of Ukraine, in particular, Kyiv, and what makes them so unique.

We had half a film by the start of the pandemic, and then in 2022, as mask-wearing came to an end, we thought it was all systems go again. However, bombs fell out of the sky on 24 February that year and we knew life had changed. And of course, our film had to change too. This was no longer a story about the people of Ukraine redefining their identity. It was a story about survival — about a country’s struggle to defend its language, traditions and culture from a neighbour hell-bent on destroying it. Now, it was more important than ever to try to capture the spirit of modern Ukraine.

“We Are Ukraine” is a story about ordinary people in an extraordinary time. People who have chosen to continue to work, get married, have babies, to continue to live, and laugh, against all odds. This is not a war story. This is not a story about death and demise. This is a story about life — a story that will make you laugh and cry and realise that, in the end, the people in Ukraine are just like those folk in any modern, free nation.

The film is a love letter to Kyiv. It shows us what the world will miss out on if Kyiv ceases to exist. Kyiv, and the rest of Ukraine, is soulful. There is something magical here that is worth protecting. Worth nurturing. Worth investing in.

Please take a look at the film’s site.

This is a non-profit adventure and it has been a long collaboration by South Africans and Ukrainians. An intense labour of love. DM