Odesa saw a true face of Donetsk Airport Cyborgs

Tears and laughter, philosophical meditations and real fighting, friendship, bravery and losses – 11 March Odesa gave a standing ovation at pre-premiere screening of documentary The Ukrainians (“Добровольці Божої Чоти” in Ukrainian release).

Odesa saw a true face of Donetsk Airport Cyborgs.

At pre-premiere screening, the film was presented by one of the directors Leonid Kanter, picture editor Yaroslav Popov and member of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, Donetsk Airport Cyborg Oleksiy “BYK”, who wrote the leading song to the film. The Ukrainians were warmly welcomed by Odesa residents, some of which had to seat on the stairs, because there were no free places.

The scenes of the film showing attack and defense operations in the Donetsk Airport were shot by Leonid Kanter, and life of Cyborgs and locals in Piski – the closest population centre to the airport under Ukrainian control – by Ivan Yasniy. This gives a unique opportunity for spectators to see one and the same event literally through the eyes of both those fighting directly at the front line in the airport and those covering their friends in Piski.

While being documentary by its nature, the film leaves an impression of a docudrama, this is a comprehensive story, making audience follow the paths of its main characters – real people, some of which unfortunately no longer walk the Earth.

The film is named The Ukrainians for foreign release, because it tells the world who real Ukrainians are. One of the film’s trailers is accompanied by sevral lines of legendary Rudyard Kipling’s If: “If you can keep your head when all about you, are losing theirs and blaming it on you… Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools… If you can dream—and not make dreams your master…you’ll be a Man, my son!” And this is what Ukrainians have learnt for the year passed.

Aleksandra Demskaya Ukraine Front Lines