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Peace for Nina still (Photo: Zhanna Dovhych)
Ukrainian documentary
film Peace for Nina, directed by Zhanna Dovhych, will be shown in
the international competition at the 45th Jean Rouch International Documentary
Film Festival on May 10.
The film follows Nina Branovytska, a Ukrainian mother whose
life was forever changed by the Russo–Ukrainian war. Her son, Ihor
Branovytskyi, was among the last Ukrainian soldiers to leave Donetsk airport. He
was captured in January 2015 while trying to save wounded comrades and was
later tortured and executed by a Russian mercenary.
Grieving but determined, Nina seeks truth and justice. She
interviews witnesses and her son's fellow soldiers to reconstruct his final
hours and press for accountability. Amid loss and danger, she finds strength in
memories of Ihor and in a community of mothers who also lost children to the
war.
Peace for Nina is a study in resilience, love and
hope, and argues that even small steps toward justice can help healing. The
film aims to bring international attention to the war crimes committed by
Russians against Ukrainian prisoners of war and places Nina’s story in the
broader context of violations of international law by Russia since the conflict
began in 2014.
"I began this film as the story of Nina Branovytska's fight to have her son's killing in captivity recognized as a war crime committed by Russians and to make the world finally pay attention to the war Russia launched against Ukraine in 2014," Dovhych said.
"Over time, this yearslong observation of Nina's life
became a story about the transformation of pain. In a sense it's a Greek
tragedy: having lost her son, a mother tries to warn the world of a larger war
by seeking recognition of Russian war crimes in the courts. But that does not
happen, and the world is hit by a new, even larger war."
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