Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 have been prohibited from leaving the country. Many women however have fled and continue to flee, while others remain – with their children, while the men are at the front. In this film, Ukrainian women tell us what they are experiencing and what they are suffering: the female perspective on an ongoing war. For an entire year, our film team has been travelling through Ukraine and other countries in Europe, asking Ukrainian women to tell their stories – in a wooden video booth designed specifically for the film, the storybox: no filter, no interviewer, no time limit. These women include refugees, who wrestle every day with the decision to leave their country and have since found themselves torn between two worlds. Women, who stayed and have learned to live under constant threat; those who continue to work at their jobs as a midwife, local politician or baker under new and very different conditions, or those who have sought out a new role, who support the men in the war zones, have turned their factory floors into bunkers or are simply protecting their families. And those who have decided to fight at the front, to protect their home and their country.

In total, the film team has travelled more than 12,000 km to record the voices of women – including right to the front lines of the war: In Izyum, the film team were caught up in an exchange of gunfire with Russian soldiers who had evidently gotten lost following the withdrawal of their troops. When the team were filming in Kharkiv, the city came under rocket fire and the storybox had to be set up in the central bunker. In total, filming was interrupted more than 30 times due to bomb alerts.

“UKRAINIAN STORYBOX – Voices of War” is a densely packed, emotionally charged narrative. The testimonies combine with mostly private footage to provide a unique, panoramic view of the war from the female perspective.