Ukrainian action thriller billed as Saving Private Ryan for the drone age | Ukraine
It’s billed as Ukraine’s answer to Saving Private Ryan, updated for the age of drones.
war movie Killhouse An action thriller that showcases the latest advances in battlefield technology. The film, released this week, features cameos by well-known figures in Ukraine, including the country’s former military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov. One of the missing persons is Donald Trump. The film takes place in 2024, when Washington and Kiev are allies.
Its director, Liubomyr LevytskyiHe said he was inspired by a real-life story about a couple trying to save their relatives and being attacked by Russians. The man was seriously injured. A nearby Ukrainian military unit sent a drone with a piece of paper. “Follow me,” it said. The woman followed the drone, dodging mines and bullets. Russian soldiers threw her unconscious husband into the ditch. Incredibly, he survived.
“A friend of mine, who is a journalist, called me and said: ‘Liubomyr, I have a story that will give you goosebumps,’” Levytskyi said. He added: “I thought: ‘Of course it will. I’ve seen most of these stories already.’ It’s hard to impress me with a story. Then I saw the footage of the rescue operation. “I couldn’t believe my eyes that this was real.”
Director made A 30-minute documentary, Follow MeHe said it attracted great interest. “I realized that this story really struck a chord and that people were getting it. Drones in general are a new thing. So I thought this story should be turned into a movie.”
The subsequent two and a half hour film was shot in the Kyiv region last year. Levytskyi said he took artistic license for the plot by including a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by the Russians. Scenes take place in the White House situation room in occupied eastern Ukraine and in a farmhouse in the deadly gray zone. A gunfight and car chase take place in Kyiv city centre.
US journalist Audrey MacAlpine The actor, who plays a version of himself, said filming had to be stopped multiple times. “There were air raid warnings. We had to hide. It was a war within a war,” he said. actor Denis Kapustin He said some players would take a nap in a bomb shelter, waiting for the threat to pass. He said of the blurring of fiction and reality: “The film is completely meta and postmodern.”
Kapustin said Killhouse reflects the complex, multi-level nature of today’s warfare. “This is a race for technological superiority,” he added. Soldiers stood alongside professional players with pyrotechnics used to simulate explosions. After filming wrapped, Kapustin joined the real-life unit in which his character served, the 3rd Assault Brigade, part of the 3rd Army Corps.
He is now a drone operator. In one scene, a group of Ukrainian special forces soldiers clear a building and shoot several Russians dead. Kapustin acknowledged that the fighting was being fought remotely along much of the front line, but said street-by-street fighting was taking place in fragmented eastern towns such as Vovchansk. “It’s realistic. The plan is not to lose people,” he said.
The reaction of Ukrainian viewers was positive. “It’s interesting to see news agencies like Budanov on the screen,” Maria Hlazunova, who works at Ukraine’s film archive, the Dovzhenko Center, said at this week’s Kiev premiere. He added: “It’s like a mix of fact and fiction. The movie is super patriotic, as it should be. There are a few cheesy moments. Overall it does a really good job.”
Ukraine’s two main intelligence agencies, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), were involved in the production. They provided US Humvee and MaxxPro vehicles as well as a Black Hawk helicopter. The series showcases Ukraine’s newest homemade drones, such as the catapult-launched reconnaissance model known as the Shark.
The film’s producers say it is the first feature film in cinema history to use footage shot by real combat drones. They are preparing an English version for distributors in the US and are considering creating a four-episode version for streaming platforms such as Netflix. Killhouse was made without government support and had a budget of $1.1 million.
Like Saving Private Ryan, the story has a moral question at its core: Is it worth sacrificing many lives to save one person, in this case a stolen child? Accordingly Media unit of the Ukrainian armyKillhouse depicts “something the world often overlooks in the daily stream of frontline updates.” “Ukrainian soldiers are not only fighting to protect the land, they are also moving into gray zones to bring civilians home,” the statement said.
Levytskyi suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin grossly underestimated Ukraine’s resilience and will to survive when he launched his large-scale invasion in 2022, thinking his armed forces could overwhelm Kiev in a few days. More than four years later, the war continues. “The enemy is very afraid when Ukrainians unite. This is a fact,” the director said.
Additional reporting: Jake Jacobs
