"We, Our Pets and the War: The opening film of Doc Kyiv Fest is announced
On 28 March, the Doc Kyiv Fest medium-length film festival will open with a film by the famous Ukrainian blogger and traveller Anton Ptushkin, We, Our Pets and the War.
"We, Our Pets and War is a documentary about people and animals. If you reduce the main idea of the film to a short sentence, it would be a quote from Asya Serpinska, the founder of the Gostomel shelter: "Save animals to stay human". This film is an attempt to show the events in Ukraine from a different angle, through the relationship between people and animals who have become both witnesses and sometimes victims of this war.
The film's main characters are not only cats, dogs, bears, lions, lemurs and a Yemeni chameleon named Igor, but also the people who rescue them at the risk of their lives. The film features many foreigners, for whom the heroism of Ukrainians in rescuing animals was a real eye-opener.
"We, Our Pets and War was created as part of a Ukrainian-Canadian co-production. The project took 1.5 years to complete.
"This film was originally made with a focus on the Western audience in mind, because it seemed to me that everyone in Ukraine already knew everything. But then I realised that much of what I had filmed would be interesting and understandable to Ukrainians. That's how I came up with the idea to make a separate film for our audience and show it in Ukrainian cinemas, not on YouTube. I'm curious to see what will come of it," comments Anton Ptushkin.
Film trailer: https://youtu.be/zAg7c_C3IHo?si=b8E84fTAsBz6K38S
The film We, Our Pets and the War will be released in Ukrainian cinemas on 4 April 2024 by Green Light Films, a film distribution company.
