Art as Evidence. Evidence as Art.
March 26, 2026
Host: Andrew Kushnir
Guests: Taras Lesiuk and Annick Sheedy McLellan
[CLIP OF TARAS LESIUK SPEAKING]
Look, let’s be honest here. There’s a reason why Russia wants to erase Ukrainian culture, why other nations around the world that have been in imperialistic ambitions have wanted to erase the culture, to burn the books, to burn the art, to destroy it. It’s because it’s a fingerprint of existence. It says, ‘Hey, we are here, and we are real, and we exist, and we are independent of their identity.’
INTRODUCTION
ANDREW KUSHNIR: That’s Montreal-based filmmaker, Taras Lesiuk. And when it comes to adding fingerprints of Ukrainian existence, he and his creative partner, Annick Sheedy McLellan, have become some of the busiest filmmakers in Canada. Taras and Annick were a filmmaking duo before the full-scale invasion but – as has been the case for so many artists – February 24, 2022, was a redefining moment. Or, maybe not redefining – just deeply clarifying. War can sometimes make it plain: this is what I need to do.
In preparing for my conversation with them, and the role of film in wartime, I was reminded of a very moving experience I’d had in November 2025. I attended a lunch time conversation at the University of Toronto featuring filmmaker Alisa Kovalenko and her husband journalist Stéphane Siohan. They were there to talk about Alisa’s new documentary film called My Dear Théo – Z liuboviu z frontu (With love from the front). Théo, their son, maybe 6 or 7 years old, was in the room with us, keeping distracted on an iPad.
The backstory on this film is complex, and disturbing. Alisa, in 2014, was held hostage and tortured by separatists in eastern Ukraine. Stéphane helped rescue her. She vowed to herself and her family, that if a bigger war broke out, she’d be putting down her camera for a rifle. And shortly after February 24, 2022 – the day where everything changed – she made good on her vow: she enlisted to join an assault unit of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army.
Her documentary, My Dear Theo, charts that journey to the front and back in the form a video diary to her son.
At the lunchtime conversation I asked her something in the Q and A. I asked: “Are there things in this film, things that happened to you, that you wish your son didn’t know about?” Alisa took a moment and then replied “Sometimes you have to sacrifice the private for something bigger. For my country. For the future.” And then Stéphane added something, and this has really stayed with me too. He said: “We don’t need any more information. We have enough information about this war. What we need are feelings. Feelings of connection. And that’s what this film does. Through a soldier. A filmmaker. A mother. This film is a bridge.”
[MUSIC]
The theme of bridges – or portals – these things that connect us across space and time – is at the heart of this episode of Kultura Rising, and specifically, what this has to do with the power of cinema. It brings me back to my guests, Taras and Annick. In their most recent release, they bring this metaphor of portals to life in such a vivid way. In fact, it’s a documentary entitled Doors of War. It is a potent example of how in wartime, evidence can become art, and art can become evidence.
In our conversation we discuss the questions that fuel them, especially over the past few years. Key questions, not unlike the ones that ran through Alisa in such a concentrated way: What matters right now? What can I do? What is my most important purpose in this war? And feeling the urgency and pressure to come up with an answer as people, and as filmmakers.
I begin with them at the beginning. Taras and Annick’s first collaboration. It’s a short film called Flyer Boys. And it cast a spell on me when I first watched it. Here’s Taras Lesiuk and Annick Sheedy McLellan.
[MUSIC]
THE CONVERSATION
[DOOR OPENING]
ANNICK SHEEDY MCLELLAN: In the true duo fashion, you start, I’ll finish. We’ll pass it back and forth.
ANDREW KUSHNIR:
How do you describe Flyer Boys? What do you say to tease people into watching it?
TARAS LESIUK: Flyer Boys is, it’s a storybook essentially. It’s a tale between that intergenerational gap that we experience between our grandparents and grandchildren. There’s something so unique that I find is worth exploring in stories, which is there’s a very special relationship that happens between grandparents and grandkids because that middle part is removed which is the parents. And there’s almost like a secret sort of language that you can have with your grandparents that you can’t have and so, and vice versa, that the grandparents kind of treat you not like a complete child but they treat you as someone like a best little friend, you know And so Flyer Boys was the story that was inspired by my own story which is about my grandfather and it was relating to the first job that I had when I was around 10 years old. It was a quick summer job that I did with my grandfather, which was carrying flyers all over Toronto. And what I found so unique about that was my grandfather, at the time he was still living in Ukraine so he was just visiting back and forth, and it was one of the summers that he was visiting and, through a family friend, they offered this job, and so we said, ‘look, let’s do it.’ And it was kind of interesting because here was someone that didn’t know the English language that and I was a child that, you know, and none of us really knew the streets of Toronto. And we were trying to figure it out together. And I wanted to capture that on screen and so Flyer Boys, specifically, is about this relationship between his grandfather and his grandson and this notion of wanting to teach the grandson about old school values of, you know – ‘So look, I was raised in the Soviet Union. You need to work for every single dollar. You got to earn your bread, you know, duh duh duh,’ and then the grandson is saying – ‘Well look, this is Canada, you know, like I don’t, this is my summer off. I should be out with friends. I want to go play soccer. I want to be, go kick a ball around down the street, you know. Why am I working? This isn’t the Soviet Union.’ And so it kind of reflects that immigrant experience.
ANDREW: Yeah, I’m really struck, some of the images that stay with me from the film are the alleyways, you know, the spaces in between, you know, and so many of the little scenes happen in alleyways as this grandfather and this grandson are, delivering – we should say, the flyers are all Ukrainian businesses or Ukrainian initiatives. And I couldn’t help but think about not only the intergenerational gap, but the two worlds that come together in an immigrant experience. And, you know, I think of my grandparents, particularly on my dad’s side, they barely spoke English. I mean, they lived in this country since the ’40s. Yeah, since the late ’40s or early ’50s. And, you know, to the very end, Ukrainian was their primary mode of communication and there were barriers. And so it really spoke to me on that front. The sort of discomfort, but also, and you shoot it in black and white, and there’s something about looking back that, as much as I feel the embarrassment, as much as I can relate to feeling like this, quote unquote, old world is being delivered to me, I feel so much, like, heart pangs and connection and gratitude, actually. I think I am hardworking because my grandparents made that appreciable that you have to be hardworking. And, and so anyway, I just thought, as much as the piece was a work of fiction, you dabbled in a lot of the real for me.
TARAS: I appreciate hearing that. I think that is ultimately, that’s the goal of just about anything we do in art is for it to be able to connect in some way, you know, and I think it’s such a, it’s such a testament that everyone can find some kind of sliver or some kind of angle of like, I can relate to that, you know, and it makes you think about, you know, what, maybe I’ll pick up the call and call my grandparents, you know. Maybe I’ll do that, and just, it adds a little extra something to your everyday life that is beautiful.
ANNICK: Yeah. I think what you’re kind of hitting on the head as well, Taras, as what you mentioned, Andrew, is that it is truly a Ukrainian story. There are, there’s salo, there’s the language, there’s references to the Soviet Union, to cars. There’s definitely, it’s embedded with Ukrainian culture. But it also has such a nostalgic universal tone to it that when, when Taras and I talk about the films that meant the most to us, we often refer back to those ‘90s magic films that somehow made you feel more connected with everyone, that made you feel, okay, my life is so different from everyone within my community, maybe if that’s how you felt, but then you’d watch this film and you’d find a glimpse at something that made you feel connected to those characters and therefore maybe more connected to the community. Like Taras mentioned, he discovered those streets growing up and so being able to revisit them as a director, being able to showcase Toronto in a way that felt timeless because of the black and white as well. It’s been really, that was such a great way, I think, for us to start this journey into these films about, about Ukrainian Canadians, truly.
ANDREW: Yeah, it really reminded me that, you know, the subway scenes – everybody’s got a story, everybody has a world they’re carrying on their back, it just, it became very, very alive for me. And again, I’m fond of black and white, so it just kind of, it took me even deeper into some of that, just by virtue of, almost like simplifying the story for me.
TARAS: I appreciate that. And I’ll add for anyone who’s listening and is interested in seeing this film, it is a little Wizard of Oz and I won’t spoil why. And the other thing I’ll add is, just a little sort of easter egg, is that that is, actually, my grandfather in this film.
ANDREW: Ah, you’re kidding me.
TARAS: I’m not kidding. We went through casting. We almost had, I shouldn’t drop names, but we almost had some very like notable actors that were going to play in this, through just favors, really, right? But, in the end, we, I convinced, I don’t know how I got him to do it, but I convinced my grandfather to, to be in it. And I’ll never forget, on the night of the premiere, we had this full theater, and everyone came out, and he literally dressed in, like, a beautiful suit, and he came out to his first premiere. And it’s the first time in his life that he felt like a star of something, he actually felt like he was in the spotlight.
ANDREW: Yeah.
TARAS: And, uh, he kind of loved it. So, um, so yeah, it’s just, it’s, you know, it’s just-
ANDREW: He’s like, “Taras, where’s the sequel here? Come on!”
TARAS: They literally, they keep asking for it, he’s like, ‘I want my residuals.”
[MUSIC]
ANDREW: Taras and Annick had filmed Flyer Boys in the summer of 2021. In February of 2022, the film was in post-production. Lest we forget, this is the February that changed the world.
TARAS: Specifically, actually, I’ll never forget. We were in studio, uh, mixing the sound for this film and we had both left and the reason I, I’m not kidding, the reason I found out about, uh, the full-scale invasion was through our sound recorder, or sound mixer who texted me, ‘I am so sorry’. And I immediately thought, oh no, something happened with the sound. Like, so, you know, we’re gonna have to go back into the studio. That’s how I found out. […]
ANDREW: Wow.
ANNICK: And, and I found out because Taras called me after, after that call, but, like he’s saying, we, I mean, there was so much talk in those two, three weeks ahead. There had been so much talk for a long time, but that it was obviously something top of mind for both of us as we were working on this film, but also because, as Taras mentioned, we were also in the process of looking towards traveling to Ukraine for, for some location scouts with a production team there, and so we were also in close communication with the producers that we had been communicating with, checking in on them, on how they were doing on, on everything. And, and, like you said, everything shifted because, I mean, I’ll let Taras kind of speak more to this. I think that you’re probably in a better position to speak about it, Taras, because I, as someone who doesn’t have Ukrainian heritage, as someone who is adopted by the community in a lot of ways now, I have tried to take my lead from people within the community to understand as well what is needed most and what is, um, how to be best supportive. But there was also definitely a moment where we tried to understand, we didn’t want to be taking up space. I think it’s something that was crucial for us, in a time when it was so important for communication to be coming from people who were living through these atrocities, we wanted to make sure that we weren’t flooding the space.
ANDREW: Yeah.
TARAS: Specifically, with respect to the film that we were in development for at the time, we were working with a producer out of Kyiv. And up until the 24th of February it was all very, you know, like formalities. And like, we need to get this paperwork signed, and this then. And leading up to that, we were, of course, messaging her and saying, you know, um, okay, aside from all that, you know, ‘How are you, are you okay, because we’re seeing the news.’ And, you know, the response was this constant, ‘No, no, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Let’s focus on this. We got to get this paperwork in by, you know, the 30th, we got to. That’s our next step. And make sure, have you been looking at the, the locations now, we sent you some photos.’ And it was just kind of remarkable like, um, don’t worry about it. Let’s just focus on the work, you know. And then right overnight, you know, as soon as the 24th happened, that relationship immediately changed. It was, all of a sudden, you know, she has a daughter, and it was just, it no longer became about – let’s make this movie happen. Of course, it was, ‘Oh my God, how can we help you right now in this horrible, horrible, incredible situation that you’re in. You know, do you need to escape. Do you need support, da-da da-da.’ And so, our relationship with the producers changed, our relationship with working with Ukraine changed. It no longer became about how can we make a movie just to make a movie. It became so much more than that.
ANDREW: Yeah. I’m really struck by, I’ve, you know, encountered so many stories of artists who in that moment put their cameras down, put their laptops down, you know, put their projects down and really tilted into humanitarian work and kind of went – what has to happen here so that my collaborators, my friends and my family can survive this moment. And then what has almost happened invariably is, at a certain point, you pick the camera back up but in a different way. Can you open a window on to how you were changed as artists?
ANNICK: Um. I grew up in Ottawa in a family that was very involved in political life in a lot of different ways across the country, really. And I’ve always been a bit of the black sheep in the arts that isn’t necessarily working towards the cause of being involved in politics, let’s say. And at the same time I’ve always had very strong convictions and very really deep sense of justice, and always sought out a way in which I could blend the storytelling that I do, the art that I need to make, with also contributing to society because those are two things that are very, very much a part of who I am. And without it sounding, maybe like taking advantage of the situation in a different way, it felt like it came to light to me. I understood at that point to what extent art can contribute to the conversation in a different way, because Taras and I talk very often about when someone is watching news media, that’s processed in a cerebral way. If you’re watching information come at you about a war, it’s coming in and it is being processed by your brain. And that’s a way to affect a certain population, but there’s a large population that is more affected by their heart, by their soul, by the way in which they feel. And that’s the people that we know how to speak to best. And so I think that what the full invasion really sparked in me was an understanding that the privilege that I have of growing up in a country that is at peace, and the privilege of having an opportunity to create art without having to think about what’s happening outside in the same way as Ukrainians are is something that I need to put into action.
ANDREW: War is many things, right? And I do think it’s irrefutably destructive and devastating. But this feels like another example of a click in you around, ‘oh, I know what I can do here’, or ‘I know how I can participate.’ And maybe not exactly, you know, you didn’t have maybe a granular sense just yet, but at least in your heart a sense of, ‘I can step into this. I might be useful.’
ANNICK: Exactly.
ANDREW: Yeah. Yeah. Taras, was there a similar click for you? I mean, it’s a little bit different by virtue of, you come from Ukraina, you come from Ukraine.
TARAS: Absolutely. So, It was about six months that passed by where the entire focus was on this humanitarian aspect of it. How could we actually be supportive immediately, whether it’s donations, whether it’s helping coordinate locations to help, whatever. And then, that’s when it clicked after a little while where I realized the one tool that we have outside of any kind of monetary small donations that we contribute is our art. It’s so incredibly important at a time like this, to be able to propel the message further and to also get that original mission, which was to get Ukrainian culture exposed to the Western world, it almost became my responsibility. It’s like you want to call yourself a filmmaker, you want to call yourself an artist. Here’s your moment. As a Ukrainian man that holds dual citizenship, I do feel guilt that there are men and women in Ukraine that are picking up weapons and picking up rifles and going to the front to literally defend the country. And what, if I can’t do that, you can at least do this, you know. And that’s when it clicked. It became not only this pursuit, but it became sorted to me and in my head became a mission. And as a Ukrainian artist it became a responsibility to use your voice and to use your art to be able to help elevate Ukrainian culture to the front.
ANDREW: And as a team, you don’t move into another work of fiction though, right? You go into documentary.
ANNICK: Yeah, technically yes. We kind of worked candidly in tandem on both. So, technically, the first thing we started was developing the concept for We Come From Here, for our narrative. And then I will let Taras tell the lovely story of how we met Ruslan. But basically, once, something that Taras and I do well, is once we decide to jump in, gone bad, once we decide to jump in, we don’t do things in a small way. We jumped in and had two projects in development basically within a week of deciding that this is how we were going to be able to hopefully participate in making a difference, understanding the scope of what it is that we were doing and not wanting to grandstand it. But I will let Taras maybe chat about what you’re hinting at – Doors of War – this incredible project that I feel so fortunate to have worked on.
TARAS: So, Doors of War, it’s a film, it’s a documentary film that follows the story of a Ukrainian artist named Ruslan Kurt, who… he comes from Melitopol in Ukraine, which is now, unfortunately, currently under occupation. But he has Crimean Tatar Roots and Heritage. And so, he’s an installation artist that was living in Ukraine. And, then because of the war, he moved here to Canada, and in an effort to, again, use his voice as an artist, he created this project called Doors Through the Horror of War, which was essentially, he brought 25 doors that he and the team in Ukraine collected through different parts of Ukraine that were impacted by the war, that were under occupation, that were later liberated. And, these 25 doors, the number is to represent the 24 oblasts and Crimea, so it’s his representation of the whole Ukraine. And he brought these doors to Canada in order to exhibit them to Canadian audiences, to Western audiences, so that there was something that you could tangibly touch and actually feel the impact. You know, you see a door that is a door to a, a classroom or a library and it has bullet holes on it. You stare at it and you start to imagine what was behind that door, who was behind that door, are they okay? Where are they now? It really just stirs your imagination. And so. I met Ruslan, serendipitously, at an art gallery in 2022, in September 2022, when he was just, fortunately for us, he was just at the beginning process of collecting these doors. And I thought, well, here’s an interesting sort of collaboration that we could have where, as filmmakers, we can extend that story further and actually have these interviews or meet, you know, on screen, these individuals behind these doors. And that we can follow Ruslan’s journey here in Canada as he’s trying to exhibit these doors, but throughout the film, we cut back to these vignettes and these little side stories of meeting the people and the individuals behind these doors and hearing their stories, their pleas for help and, um, their reflection on all of it.
ANDREW: Hmm, did they understand what the metaphoric power of that donation would be? Do you think they gave their doors and went, ‘yeah, I think I can get what your, what your after here,’ or was it perplexing?
ANNICK: I’d say, I’d say it depended on the person. I think some people perhaps wanted it to be a testament and to maybe act as testimony…
ANDREW: Hmm.
ANNICK: …in the way that sometimes, we’ve seen organizations and foundations in Canada bring artifacts of war, tanks or shrapnel, missiles to Canada. I think that something that was evident in the hours and hours of interviews that we were fortunate to listen to was a deep, deep, deep desire to, to share their story, to share what happened, to make sure that it is heard from Ukrainians because there’s so much propaganda coming out of Russia but also amplified by other countries that there are no civilian targets, that this is happening to, in military spaces. And so, having Ukrainians, everyday Ukrainians from so many walks of life, be able to share that, ‘no, no, this happened to me, this happened to my home, to my school, to my office.’
I think that they understood, I mean, I know that they understood that they were communicating that that’s not the truth. But I think that the most wonderful thing was that we also heard from them different things that it represented to them. So much gratitude to Ruslan for choosing an object that has so much meaning to everyone. For, in so many different ways and different cultures, doors have so much meaning. And so, I think that was one of the most beautiful parts of listening to those interviews was hearing people share what that door meant to them in a physical space, but also some of them, what the idea of sending a door to Canada meant. And then in the film, no spoilers, but at the end Ruslan does get to connect with someone who used to live behind one of those doors. And she, I mean, they are, those two people are, somewhere, are kindred spirits to me because they both communicate the same thing. This idea that the door acts as a bridge between Canada and Ukraine in a lot of ways.
[MUSIC]
ANDREW: Yeah, you’re making me reflect on how the history of Ukraine and Ukrainian people, you’d understand why it’s a bolted door, you know. And it’s beautiful to think that, that the Ukrainians are opening the door or trying to, and, and there are Ukrainian Canadian artists such as yourselves who are trying to open the door. And, I think you’ve used this word before, it might even come up in the documentary, this idea of portals, you know, the extent to which art can be a portal. And, uh, full disclosure, I appear in the film, I think, a couple of times, because you interviewed me and you also interviewed a number of other Ukrainian Canadian artists, just to add even another layer to this, which is Ruslan’s amazing work, and his installation, but how we all as artists, a community of artists are trying to create portals between, what may feel like the distant stranger, the Ukrainian as a distant stranger and, and making them not so distant, not so, uhm, disconnected from our hearts. And so I really want to applaud that about your practice, and it feels like that to me is a recurring theme in your work, whether it’s Flyer Boys, whether it’s We Come From Here, whether it’s it’s Doors of War, you have this deep commitment to transporting us and, and trying to like find, how do we meet in the middle here? How do we understand each other a little bit better? There’s this amazing issue of the London Ukrainian Review, I don’t know if, if it’s on your map at all, but their whole latest issue is culture is security, and that ultimately, if we’re talking about, uh, equipping an army to defend itself, the way we, we hope Ukraine will keep being equipped, you gotta care about those people, and, and in fact, culture is the way to create that emotional bond, that relational bond, that makes you feel like you’re responsible for the well-being of those human beings.
ANNICK: Yeah.
TARAS: If I can add to that, I think what you’re saying is stirring something so, um, so powerful that, you know, we don’t often talk about the actual impact that culture and art has on the identity of a nation. Because, look, let’s, let’s be honest here, there’s a reason why, you know, Russia wants to erase Ukrainian culture, why other nations around the world that have been in imperialistic ambitions have wanted to erase the culture, to burn the books, to burn the art, to, to destroy it. It’s because it’s a fingerprint of existence. It says, ‘Hey, we are here, and we are real, and we exist, and we are independent of their identity.’ And if you remove all that, then, you know, a hundred, two hundred, five hundred years from now, you struggle to see were they, did they exist? Did they not exist? We don’t know, right? Culture, art, books, all of that, it’s a reminder that we exist, we’re here, and we have our own voice.
ANDREW: Yeah. The phrase that’s bouncing around in my head, as you’ve been talking, is this notion of, and it comes alive in your work, that evidence as art, and art as evidence. And in that phrasing, for some reason, art for me becomes this pathway for truth. Like, how do we arrive at truth and relationship? And that’s exactly what the Kremlin wants to eradicate, is art in the middle of that phrase. Because it fractures truth, it fractures the flow of information, it fractures, again, ethical relationship, it makes us strange to one another, and when we’re strange to one another, you know, care breaks down, and then, you know, countries like Ukraine succumb to imperialist agendas. So, it feels like art is not frosting on all of this, it’s not like, it’s not bonus material, you know, it just feels like there truly is a cultural front to this war. And that’s what everybody outside of Ukraine can truly participate in. You spoke earlier Taras about that, you know, I’ve thought of it too, of my activist friends in Ukraine, you know. And again, they’re men who fall under martial law there, they’re of an age where they could be conscripted or drafted. They live in that possibility all the time. And I think, wow, I get to be over here, and I get to enjoy the comforts of my Canadian life.
But ultimately, what can we do as, you know, folks with agency and also resources? What can we do on the fronts that are available to us? And for me, the cultural front is, I think, increasingly, people are getting that it’s a real thing. It’s a real thing.
ANNICK: And for those who aren’t of Ukrainian heritage as well, who have the privilege of living in Canada, to be allies in that space as well is crucial. I often get asked, not in an accusatory way, but why, why I’m so focused and impassioned about this cause. And I think that… once you realize that, well, to me there is no other choice. What’s the other choice? Not to stand up for democracy, not to stand up for people who are fighting on behalf of all of us, not to believe that this is, this is that moment that people always talk about. Did you, did you stand up? Did you actually use your privilege, use your voice? And that’s something that there are so many scales at which people can, can join that fight, consuming the content, attending those events, going to screenings, going to art exhibits, reading about it and sharing it. There are so many ways to participate, but choosing to be an ally right now is something that people who don’t have Ukrainian heritage in Canada need to do, they need to decide to commit to that and to not, to not give themselves permission to, to have it be just for a month or just for this one event. To commit to it on a long term.
ANDREW: An anniversary. You know, everybody tunes in for the anniversary and there are a lot, many more days in between, you know.
ANNICK: Perfectly said.
TARAS: If I can just add something. Now is as good a time as ever to also, I want to share how grateful I am to Annick for her support, because what she’s saying is, is so valuable and it’s so important and ultimately, it’s not unconditional, you know, that you have to be an ally of Ukraine. It’s not, you know, written that this is part of our constitution here that we have to do that. It is a choice and Annick has made the choice to be an incredible ally and stand by not only my side but the side of so many Ukrainians and I thank you for that because I think it’s valuable to see that and to hear that and to know that, you know, it’s okay, you can feel, you know, like you don’t need to be wearing a vyshyvanka all the time to be showing support. You can, you can also use your actions. And the last thing I want to say on choice is that we need to remember that people in Ukraine currently don’t have a choice. They don’t have a choice to decide if they’re going to get their power turned off or if they’re going to get bombed by shaheds or who knows what else, other horrible things that are occurring to them, they don’t have that choice. Here in Canada we do have the privilege of choice, all of us, and I do believe that it is our responsibility to use that choice for good.
[MUSIC]
TARAS AND ANNICK’S CULTURAL RECOMMENDATIONS
ANDREW: As is my way, at the end of the interview, I ask Taras and Annick to each recommend a piece of Ukrainian or Ukrainian Canadian arts and culture. They each had a film for me to watch.
TARAS: There’s a documentary film that we watched last year that left an indelible mark on me, and I highly, highly recommend for anyone to be able to try and seek it out and watch it. It’s called Intercepted by Oksana Karpovych. It’s a documentary film that is about, during the first couple of months of the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian army was intercepting Russian messages. And they were publicly posting them on YouTube or wherever just so the word got out of some of these horrendous things that, you know, these people were saying. And so, what Oksana did was she took hours, hours upon hours of these intercepted messages. And she went out with this incredible […] all across these parts of Ukraine that were devastated and were formally occupied, and filmed these still shoots of like, let’s say, like a kitchen that’s been destroyed and there’s just like a window curtain that’s billowing. And the entire scene is just that shot with these intercepted messages of these Russian soldiers and what they’re saying about what they’re going to do to this family when they’re going to get there. So, I highly recommend watching that film. Intercepted, yeah.
ANNICK: The film that I want to recommend is one that we were fortunate enough to see at the [inaudible] here. It’s called To the Victory and it is by Valentyn Vasyanovych. And it is such an interesting film because it takes place after the victory. So, it imagines Ukraine after the victory. The protagonist is a filmmaker who is now trying to rebuild his life in Ukraine once the war is over and Ukraine has won. Will people come back? Will they want to come back? What will it be like? Will people choose to leave? What will it all mean and what are we fighting for? And at the same time as well, it is funny and tragic. It is so beautifully shot.
ANDREW: Intercepted and To the Victory. We have information on where you can find both of those films in the show notes. And please seek out Taras and Annick’s films on the big or small screen. For a quick fix: Flyer Boys is available to stream on HighballTV right now.
CREDITS
Kultura Rising is written and hosted by yours truly Andrew Kushnir.
Alison Broverman is our senior producer.
Pippa Johnstone is our executive producer.
Mixing and sound design by Mark Angly.
Original music by Daughters of Donbas (feat. Marichka).
Podcast graphics by Nicholas Luchak.
This has been an original podcast from The Shevchenko Foundation, Canada’s premier, national, charitable foundation for Ukrainian Canadian arts, heritage and culture since 1963. Here’s a little bit more about it.
IHOR MICHALCHYSHYN: Hi, my name is Ihor Michalchyshyn and I’m the Executive Director of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress National. My connection with The Shevchenko Foundation is that they support our community work on a national level, whether it includes youth ambassadors or parliamentary interns, or our outreach work to new communities. We can always rely on The Shevchenko Foundation as a sponsor and supporter of our work, uh, particularly since 2022 with the much expanded, uh, Ukrainian communities particularly a new and smaller communities. My hope and dream for Ukrainian culture in Canada is that it continues to thrive and develop. I’ve seen in the years that I’ve been in this position lots of innovative partnerships with other Canadian communities, lots of importing of ideas and techniques and artists from Ukraine to create a uniquely Ukrainian Canadian identity. And I think that will be very strong in the future.
[MUSIC]
ANDREW
I hope you join us next time and that you’ll keep showing up on the cultural front.
Slava Ukraini!