Films as part of family archive

Every program of this cycle is almost a half-hour-long documentary film. This format was chosen because, as Volyn television practice shows, films can be shown a certain number of times, even at an interval of years, if there are requests for a repeat showing. It is also convenient for the families of the characters – the Ukrainian military who have seen service in eastern Ukraine for almost a year, – as well for the parents, wives, and children of the fighters who have died for Ukraine. Commentator Oksana Yevpak, one of this cycle’s creators, says: there has been not a single instance that families of those killed in action did not ask for the entire footage, even as a rough copy. They value every reminder of their darlings, and, frankly speaking, it is thus easier to endure the death of a husband or a son. For the film seems to confirm that their death was not in vain and will be remembered forever.

The “Soldiers of Peace” cycle has grown, so to speak, out of the documentary films Volyn television made past year about the Heavenly Hundred’s Volyn-born heroes. There were four of them, and a really heartfelt film was made about each. These films are still high on the agenda because there are still needed as manifestation of spirit, the hope, and the belief that the nation, which has such heroes, will see a better future.

The title “Soldiers of Peace” was suggested by the whole film crew. It is “of peace” because Volyn residents say our boys are stationed in the east in order not to grab somebody else’s land but to ensure that our state and its borders remain inviolable. They have already made and shown several times films about battalion commander Leonid Polinkevych, who was killed near Volnovakha, and Rustam Khamraiev, who took part on the Maidan and met his death in the east. Yevpak says his mother continues to visit her son’s grave and does not understand why he was killed by the young men like him… For the film crew, this kind of filming is always a human shock. They have to wipe away somebody else’s and their own tears. But families of the dead are usually willing to enter into contact and be filmed, for they want to pour their hearts out and seek sympathy and support.

Oksana has also made a film about two fighters from the National Guard’s Lutsk unit, for whom the war began as long ago as May-June past year and was no less bloody than afterwards. But the makers and heroes of “Soldiers of Peace” assert that life must and does go on. “Life Wins!” is the subhead of a film about sniper Vitalii Kaloshyn who understood that “one must hurry up to live” and decided, after being shell-shocked and wounded, to marry a girl who had been waiting for him to come back home. Now they are making a film about an officer who was seriously wounded near Ilovaisk, underwent medical treatment in Germany, but did not collapse and is determined to fight for Ukraine. The “Soldiers of Peace” cycle proves that there are heroes living among and next to us.