Ukraine. The Movie.

An amazing 2-month journey across Ukraine, showing its post-war potential.

From Odessa and other coastal towns, to cities and villages, along the mountainous border with Romania and Moldova, and across the Dnipro to Kharkiv, this is a magical documentary. I want you to feel the joy like I did.

I may have seen videos of the major cities, farms and factories, but my vision has been clouded by mud and missiles the past two years. I never imagined that Ukraine was this diverse.

It doesn’t matter who ruled because poor Ukraine has only known corrupt governments stifling their tourism potential. Pro-EU or pro-Russia, it hasn’t mattered because all presidents ran administrations of robbers, and its debatable whether it was them or the oligarchs who ruled.

I’m hoping that when the war is over, Ukrainians find their feet in whatever remains of their country. They’re bigger than France or Thailand, so they’ll have a lot to work with if they elect better leaders and embrace each other (which includes Russian Ukrainians).

Being anti-war means not wanting one more Ukrainian or Russian to be killed by drone. I don’t speak of war criminals and xenophobes, but of common folk like me that have been shot into a storm and told to fly or die.

I want every soldier in a trench to get back home to his or her family and have a picnic, whether it be in the Carpathian Mountains or at Lake Baikal.

IMAGES FROM THE MOVIE

I know that most people hesitate to watch videos with subtitles but this is about travel so they’re easy to follow.

Towards your motivation, I took these screenshots.

UKRAINE. THE MOVIE.

The documentary was shot just before the second phase of the war, when Russia entered Ukraine (2022). It’s a tragedy that the team, led by Artem Shambalov, worked hard for 10 months to promote a travel guide and their tTravel mobile app for locals. Getting the footage took 50 days, with them covering 3000km.

I wonder how many are trying to warm themselves in between the snow and ice.

Not Shambalov, because he works for Zelensky now, and the only post of his I could see on Twitter (I don’t have an account) was terrible propaganda which I won’t repeat lest I spoil the beauty of Ukraine.

I watched ‘Ukraine. The Movie.’ thinking about millions, not the few. I hope you do too.