To The Victory! continues a theme from Valentyn Vasyanovych’s previous films, Atlantis and Reflection, showing how the war is impacting Ukrainians.

Set in a near-future Ukraine after the war’s end, the story follows Valyk (Valentyn Vasyanovych), a filmmaker facing unemployment, isolation, and estrangement from his family abroad. While his wife Sofia (Marianna Novikova) and daughter (Maria Odudenko) have started anew in Vienna, Valyk remains at home with his son Yaroslav (Hryhoriy Naumov)—restless, uncertain, and clinging to the fragile hope that life will eventually improve.

The idea of post-war Ukraine feels like an impossible realization. Honestly, I don’t know how many people would have thought that the Russian invasion, which began in February 2022, would still be ongoing as we approach the final months of 2025. And yet here we have a film that dares to imagine a Ukraine after the war, even if the conflict’s fingerprints are visible in every frame of To the Victory! The scars are still fresh, and you can feel how deeply the war continues to shape the film’s characters. Nobody knows what the future holds, or whether the film’s imagined tomorrow will ever come true for Ukraine in real life.

Valentyn Vasyanovych—a quadruple threat here as director, writer, editor, and actor—draws heavily from his own life experience. In reality, his wife and daughter left Ukraine because of the war. Like so many others, his family was separated, and the possibility of growing apart over time and distance was real. Could his own family fracture beyond repair? It’s not an unimaginable outcome, even though the filmmaker himself has said he never felt personally threatened. To the Victory! is not a straightforward biographical work, though—it’s more semi-biographical in the way it’s inspired by real life but transformed into something larger.

That universal quality is one of the film’s strengths. Families being torn apart is a story countless Ukrainians know all too well. Watching Valyk live apart from his wife and daughter while trying to hold on with his son, Yaroslav, taps into a shared experience. It’s not just his struggle—it represents thousands of families asking the same questions. Will they be reunited? Will their bonds survive the strain? To the Victory! doesn’t provide easy answers, and that’s what makes it resonate.

Interestingly, Vasyanovych never intended to play the lead role in To the Victory! Another actor had originally been hired, but because he was serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, his schedule quickly became unpredictable. The director stepping in himself came out of necessity, but it ends up benefiting the film. Directors acting in their own work can bring a unique challenge, yet Vasyanovych carries the role with confidence. He knows how to inhabit a character in front of the camera, and the last thing this story needed was a central performance that couldn’t hold the weight of the film.

Just as striking is how the production itself was mounted. Instead of a traditional full crew, Vasyanovych kept things small and intimate—just six or seven people who rotated between technical duties and acting roles. Many of them had never acted on camera before, yet you wouldn’t guess it. The familiarity they share in real life translates naturally to the screen. When resources are scarce, authenticity and chemistry can become a film’s greatest assets. It may not have the glossy polish of a bigger production, but the closeness of this team gives To the Victory! a handmade quality that’s hard to ignore.

The film’s central question is as urgent as it is unanswerable: what happens to Ukraine when the war finally ends? In Vasyanovych’s imagined future, a populist replaces the country’s current leadership, but whether Ukraine revives itself, rebuilds as a strong nation, or becomes some kind of geopolitical buffer zone remains unclear. By leaving the future unresolved, the film mirrors the uncertainty that Ukrainians live with every day. The ambiguity lingers long after the credits roll, making To the Victory! feel less like a prediction and more like an open question to its audience.

For Vasyanovych, filmmaking seems to function as a form of catharsis. Creating art in the midst of trauma becomes a way of processing grief, distance, and the gnawing uncertainty of daily life. For viewers, watching the film becomes a reflection of that same uncertainty: it’s a reminder of what is at stake for Ukraine, and for the world. At a time when mental health is stretched thin and survival itself feels precarious, To the Victory! insists on finding meaning through creation. It’s not just a film about a future Ukraine—it’s a film about the human need to hold on to hope. Slava Ukraini!

DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Valentyn Vasyanovych
CAST: Valentyn Vasyanovych, Vladlen Odudenko, Marianna Novikova, Hryhoriy Naumov, Volodymyr Kuznetsov

To The Victory! holds its world premiere during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival in the Platform program. Grade: 3.5/5

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