Ahmanson Auditorium became a space for witness and community reflection during a screening of “Bucha,” the first narrative feature film shot in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022. The story is based on actual events that occurred in Bucha, Vorzel, and Hostomel, located in the Kyiv region, during the initial months of the war from February to March 2022. Russian forces occupied Bucha in March 2022, but Ukrainian troops successfully forced a withdrawal of Russian forces from the city in April of that year.
The film is directed by Stanislav Tiunov, and its producer and screenwriter is Oleksandr Shchur, the LMU guest on the day of the screening. Oleksandr Schur has written a dozen TV series for Studio Kvartal 95, a production company founded by then-actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who would later be elected president of Ukraine in 2019. The main roles in the film BUCHA were played by the famous Polish theater and film actor Cezary Lukaszewicz and Ukrainian film star Vyacheslav Dovzhenko.
Hosted by Professor Katerina Zacharia, professor of classics and director of Classics and Archaeology Learning Community series, and Father Cyril Hovorun, director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute, the event was part of a nationwide tour bringing the film’s powerful story to audiences nationwide.
“They’ve done something so extraordinary,” said Zacharia. “In the last two weeks, you [Oleksandr Schur, the film’s screenwriter and producer] have been traveling across different cities for one day at a time, as you did with our screening, arriving yesterday and leaving today, taking this heavy material around the United States and the world.”
“Bucha” follows Konstantin Gudauskas, a Lithuanian Jew, a citizen of Kazakhstan, and an activist who received asylum in Ukraine and lived in Bucha when the war began. He uses his foreign citizenship status while traveling across militarized checkpoints to rescue 203 residents from Russian-occupied areas.
“When Ukrainians stayed in Ukraine, it was understandable, normal. But when a foreigner who could leave Ukraine at any time decides to stay, to risk his life for others, it becomes a symbol that nobody can stand by while such evil things happen,” said Schur. “I witnessed the beginning of the full-scale Russian Invasion … We wanted to show that in the first days of the war, everybody in Ukraine came together and believed we could stand.” The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State Border Service of Ukraine, the National Police of Ukraine, the Kyiv City Council, and the Kyiv Regional Military Administration assisted the team in the creation and filming of the movie.
“Oleksandr filmed the actual buildings after the war, gaining rare access, and he followed the real stories of the people he interviewed,” said Zacharia. “There is a kind of meta-truth or alternative truth repeatedly echoed in the media. Knowing that the film was made early in the war, it’s interesting to see how its narrative evolves. Its life is changing because there is a shift in its reception now that U.S. policy has shifted, and the Ukrainian president has been accused of starting this.”
Organized by LMU Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, the post-screening discussion welcomed open commentary and inquiry, underscoring the film’s significance at a moment heightened by the historical crossroads we are facing with the conflict. “Even though it’s like a fiction narrative, it’s really based on everything that’s happened,” said Hovorun. “I would even say that more horrible things have happened.”
Hovorun of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at LMU is very engaged in fostering dialogue and collaboration between Christian churches through public forums and encounters on both local and global levels. His presentation elucidated the United States’ shifting attitudes towards the war and the impact the current administration’s rhetoric has on foreign affairs. “I now see world leaders transforming the ideal of self-sacrifice into its opposite: harmful, easier sacrifices. Ethical deontology has been replaced by social Darwinism. Everything seems now to be a commodity for sale. Countries, lives, sacrifices, and justice,” he said.
A recording of the introduction and discussion at the screening can be viewed here.