Militantropos

In a Ukraine transformed by Russia’s full-scale invasion, ordinary people flee, grieve, resist and fight as war becomes part of their everyday lives and of who they are.

The invasion of Ukraine has altered every aspect of life across the country. Some people flee, some lose everything, while others stay to resist or fight. Moving among these lives, Militantropos observes how war enters everyday gestures, relationships and decisions, gradually reshaping those who endure it. The film traces the emergence of the militantropos: a human being transformed by a war they did not choose.

SCREENINGS

Saturday 7 November 16:15
Sunday 8 November 12:15

Programme section(s): Cinema Current | Docs Open Debates
Original title: Militantropos | Year: 2025 | Runtime: 111′
Country: Ukraine, Austria, France | Language: Ukrainian, English | Subtitles: English
Director: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova, Simon Mozgovyi​ | Production: Eugene Rachkovsky – Tabor; Ralph Wieser – Mischief Films; Nabil Bellahsene – Les Valseurs | Screenplay: Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova, Simon Mozgovyi, Maksym Nakonechnyi​ | Cinematography: Vyacheslav Tsvietkov, Khrystyna Lyzogub, Denys Melnyk | Editing: Yelizaveta Smith, Simon Mozgovyi, Alina Gorlova | Sound: Mykhailo Zakutskyi, Peter Kutin

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Cannes Film Festival, 2025 – World Premiere (Directors’ Fortnight) | Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, 2025 – The Union of the Ukrainian Film Critics’ Jury Prize | Munich International Film Festival, 2025 | Sarajevo Film Festival, 2025 | International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, 2025 | European Film Awards, 2026 | Trieste Film Festival, 2026 – Audience Award for Best Documentary

DIRECTOR’S BIO 

Yelizaveta Smith is a film director, co-founder of Tabor LTD, a member of the Ukrainian and European Film Academy. Her documentary, School Number 3, co-directed by George Genoux, won the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus International Jury at the Berlinale in 2017, and a Special Award at HumanDOC Festival in Warsaw. She is an alumna of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
Alina Gorlova is a film director, co-founder of Tabor LTD, a member of the Ukrainian and European Film Academy. Her latest documentary, This Rain Will Never Stop, won the Best First Appearance Award at IDFA, the Best Feature Award at Festival dei Popoli, GoEast, Beldocs, One World a.o.
Simon Mozgovyi is a Ukrainian film director and film editor, a member of the National Filmmakers’ Union of Ukraine. His debut documentary, The Winter Garden’s Tale (2018), premiered at Ji.hlava IDFF and then participated at DOK Leipzig. It won the Best Ukrainian Film Award at Docudays UA.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Militantropos is a neologism created by our colleague and friend Maksym Nakonechnyi. While working on the film, we talked a lot as a team, asking questions and searching for answers. One of the main things we agreed upon was that aggression and war try to wipe out not only people, cities, and villages, but also the meanings that identify us. We realised that in order to continue, we needed to find – or even create – senses that would help us personally go through this experience.
War is a fact that people face – and that distorts their existence. Human beings find themselves in a situation of choice without choice, where they are free only to choose how to react. Thus, a person freely chooses an experience that can become a relentless one. This borderline experience transforms people both individually and collectively – and this transformation is irreversible.