MILITANTROPOS YELIZAVETA SMITH, ALINA GORLOVA, SIMON MOZGOVYI

  • AUSTRIA | UKRAINE | FRANCE

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  • UKRAINIAN

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  • 2025

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  • 111 mins

Militantropos captures the human condition through the fractured realities of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The film pieces together everyday lives transformed by war—those who flee, those who lose everything, and those who stay to resist. Amid devastation and atrocity, it traces the instinct to survive and the deep-seated need for closeness. It is a profound exploration of how the human is absorbed into war, and how war, in turn, becomes an inseparable part of the human soul.

Producer(s) or Production Company :

Eugene Rachkovsky, Ralph Wieser, Nabil Bellahsene

Screenplay :

Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova, Simon Mozgovyi, Maksym Nakonechnyi

Director of Photography :

Viacheslav Tsvietkov, Khrystyna Lizohub, Denis Melnyk

Editor :

Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova, Simon Mozgovyi

Music :

Peter Kutin

Sound :

Mykhailo Zakutskyi

Awards - Winner :

Docudays UA International Documentary Human Rights FF (Union of the Ukrainian Film Critics Prize : DOCU/UKRAINE Competion)

Awards - Nominations | Screened | Official Selection :

Cannes FF(Golden Eye, Directors' Fortnight Audience Award)

Yelizaveta Smith (b. 1990 in Odesa, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian filmmaker and a member of both the Ukrainian and European Film Academies. She graduated from the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University and gained international recognition when her documentary SCHOOL NUMBER 3 (2017) won the Grand Prix in the Berlinale Generation 14plus competition in 2017. Known for her sensitive, humanistic storytelling, she most recently co-directed the documentary MILITANTROPOS (2025), which premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Alina Gorlova (b. 1992 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine) is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker who studied at the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University and co-founded TABOR production. Her work, including No Obvious Signs and This Rain Will Never Stop, has been recognized at major international festivals such as DOK Leipzig and IDFA for its powerful exploration of the psychological and human impact of conflict. She continues to make vital films about lived experience, most recently co-directing MILITANTROPOS (2025).

Simon Mozgovyi (b. 1992, Kharkiv, Ukraine) is a multifaceted filmmaker, screenwriter, editor, producer, and actor who studied Cinema and Television Arts at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture before expanding into dramaturgy and theatre in Kyiv. His documentary THE WINTER GARDEN’S TALE (2018) has screened at major international festivals, and his work is known for its poetic, observational lens on human reality. Most recently, he co-directed the documentary MILITANTROPOS (2025) with Alina Gorlova and Yelizaveta Smith, which premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

  1. 1. DJ AHMET
  2. 2. SENTIMENTAL VALUE
  3. 3. SOUND OF FALLING
  4. 4. MY FATHER'S SHADOW
  5. 5. NO OTHER CHOICE
  6. 6. WHERE THE WIND COMES FROM
  7. 7. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
  8. 8. RESURRECTION
  9. 9. A POET
  10. 10. MAGELLAN
  11. 11. SIRĀT
  12. 12. FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER
  13. 13. THE MASTERMIND
  14. 14. LATE SHIFT
  15. 15. AMRUM
  16. 16. CASE 137
  17. 17. SKIN OF YOUTH
  18. 18. WE BELIEVE YOU
  19. 19. BETTER GO MAD IN THE WILD
  20. 20. FATHER
  21. 21. MORTICIAN
  22. 22. TO THE VICTORY!
  23. 23. DREAMS
  24. 24. THE BLUE TRAIL
  25. 25. MOTHERTONGUE
  26. 26. A SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD
  27. 27. FIUME O MORTE!
  28. 28. THE THINGS YOU KILL
  29. 29. YOUNG MOTHERS
  30. 30. THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO
  31. 31. CATANE
  32. 32. PROMISED SKY
  33. 33. CHRISTY
  34. 34. I ONLY REST IN THE STORM
  35. 35. THE PUPIL
  36. 36. COMANDANTE FRITZ
  37. 37. IMPATIENCE OF THE HEART
  38. 38. STRAIGHT CIRCLE
  39. 39. DRY LEAF
  40. 40. A USEFUL GHOST
  41. 41. SLEEPLESS CITY
  42. 42. OUTCRY
  43. 43. MY UNCLE JENS
  44. 44. THE LOVE THAT REMAINS
  45. 45. KONTINENTAL '25
  46. 46. JANINE MOVES TO THE COUNTRY
  47. 47. DIVINE COMEDY
  48. 48. A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT
  49. 49. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JOSEF MENGELE
  50. 50. GOD WILL NOT HELP
  51. 51. TÊTES BRÛLÉES
  52. 52. REEDLAND
  53. 53. DEAD DOG
  54. 54. NINO
  55. 55. BEFORE THE BODY
  56. 56. LOVE ME TENDER
  57. 57. THE LAST AMBASSADOR
  58. 58. CARAVAN
  59. 59. WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU
  60. 60. AS WE BREATHE
  61. 61. TALES OF THE WOUNDED LAND
  62. 62. HALF MOON
  63. 63. THE PORTUGUESE HOUSE
  64. 64. FOLLIES
  65. 65. THE DEVIL SMOKES
  66. 66. VANILLA
  67. 67. BLUE HERON
  68. 68. KOKORAS
  69. 69. DRAGONFLY
  70. 70. KIKA
  71. 71. MAYSOON
  72. 72. BEACHCOMBER
  73. 73. WIND, TALK TO ME
  74. 74. BROKEN VOICES
  75. 75. RENOVATION
  76. 76. HAPPY BIRTHDAY
  77. 77. HUMAN RESOURCE
  78. 78. NOMAD SHADOW
  79. 79. THE DREAMED ONES
  80. 80. TWO PROSECUTORS
  81. 81. CLOISTERED SISTER
  82. 82. ORENDA
  83. 83. DE TAL PALO
  84. 84. MILITANTROPOS
  85. 85. RIVERSTONE
  86. 86. OSLO: A TAIL OF PROMISE
  87. 87. MAHIMA
  88. 88. BELÉN