Viktor

In the remote countryside of Kharkiv, Viktor, an imposing colossus, swings his sword through the freezing air, inspired by the heroes of samurai films he watches with his mother on their old television set. When the Russian invasion begins, he rushes to enlist, eager to contribute to the national effort and prove his worth. But he is rejected due to his deafness, and instead reinvents himself as a press photographer. Embedded with soldiers and mercenaries, his long-standing fascination with the warrior myth collides with the harsh reality of the front line.
Having premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, produced by Darren Aronofsky, Viktor is an intimate and powerful meditation on masculinity, where the protagonist’s inner world, torn between valor and vulnerability, finds its translation in striking black-and-white cinematography. The film evokes the anguished expressionism of early 20th-century art, a tradition itself deeply rooted in the traumas of war.
James Berclaz-Lewis

Viktor, 2024
On the President's Order, 2019
Mosul, 2017