"West cannot be shocked by death of human being anymore": Ukrainian director presents documentary about animals and war

Detector Media reported the information.

A three-day documentary film festival Doc Kyiv Fest has started in Kyiv. During the opening ceremony of the film festival, the first documentary by Ukrainian travel blogger and former host of the Heads and Tails program Anton Ptushkin, “Us, Our Pets and War”, premiered.

"2022 was a year of short forms. Everyone was making videos that needed to be uploaded immediately. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do that. I realized that I needed something more fundamental, and documentary is probably one of those forms. We decided to tell the story of animals because we were looking for an angle from which we could show the war in a way that would be interesting for foreigners to watch. This is actually a very pragmatic approach. It was the summer of 2022 - the Bucha had already happened. Unfortunately, no one in the West was surprised by the death of a human being. And animals are a topic that can touch hearts," the director said.    

The film was tailored for a Western audience, featuring many English speakers. A significant milestone has been reached as the documentary has been acquired by PBS, the largest broadcaster in the United States. The international version of "Us, Our Pets and War" will be aired in the US as part of PBS's renowned Nature documentary series.

PBS is the most well-known provider in America, and, in particular, broadcast the film 20 Days in Mariupol in the Frontline series.

The film was created in cooperation with the Canadian company Yap Films. According to Ptushkin, representatives of this company found him with the help of the large Ukrainian diaspora in Canada. The Yap Films representatives were interested in his English-language YouTube channel, which at that time had a video dedicated to Patron the dog, a detection dog and mascot for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. The director explains that they created the Ukrainian version of the film because they felt that they wanted to tell Ukrainians many stories.

"But for me, these are two different films. This is because we and the West are interested in different things," the director said.

One of the film's protagonists is Natalia Mazur, the former head of a shelter in Borodyanka, where many dogs died in closed enclosures during the Russian occupation. Mazur says she did not let the dogs out of their cages because they could have attacked people. 

"One of the most important questions for us was whether it was worth risking human life to save animals. And there is no answer to this question. It's terrible, but the viewer has to make a choice for himself," added Ptushkin.

The film will be released in Ukraine on April 4.