The Illusion Of The Quiet Night

Filmed during one night in July 2025 by forty filmmakers and hundreds of citizens, The Illusion of a Quiet Night paints a vast collective portrait of war-torn Ukraine. Between fear and exhaustion, moments of joy and scenes of the ordinary day to day, we watch as life goes on in spite of everything, witnessing the resilience of a nationgripped by uncertainty.

A man rolls back the sliding roof of an observatory. Light pours in. He looks at the sky, acknowledges the presence of the sun. But very quickly, night falls over the film. Dogs roam beneath the neon lights of a petrol station. Car headlights sweep the road. At the station, loved ones say their farewells under the harsh lights illuminating the platforms. Passengers – a woman, a child, a man in military uniform – look us straight in the eyes through the window before their train departs. A woman about to give birth arrives at the maternity ward. A unit at
the front prepares its meal. People dance in a club while others take shelter from air raids. They escape and they confront. They help and protect one another. Filmed one night in July 2025 by forty filmmakers and hundreds of citizens, The Illusion of a Quiet Night creates a broad collective portrait of Ukrainians facing the invasion war they did not ask for. Wide shots that give a sense of overview and distance, subjective cameras with an intimate gaze, sometimes unsure of what to capture, converse in a choral montage that conveys the coexistence of the whole. Between fear and exhaustion, moments of joy and scenes of the ordinary day to day, we watch as life goes on in spite of everything, witnessing the resilience
of a nation gripped by uncertainty, before the sun rises again.

director Olga Chernykh

scriptwriter Maryna Brodovska

producer Daria Zakharova Eugene Rachkovsky

executive producer Eugene Rachkovsky

producers Suspilne Olena Krasavtseva, Natalie Movshovych, Sergiy Nedzelskyy, Anastasiia Zakhilko

editors Maryna Maykovska, Kasia Boniecka

sound Serhii Avdieiev

music Maryana Klochko

photography Oleg Bachynskyi, Yevhenia Bondarenko, Boria Borysov, Liza Burkreyeva, Andrey But, Volodymyr Cheppel, Dmytro Cherniavskyi, Ivan Fomichenko, Sophia Gera, Dmytro Grabovskyi, Oleh Halaidych, Yerema Holota, Illya Hretskyi, Andriy Karpets, Yevhen Kozeko, Oleksiy Leskov, Anton Lukashenko, Sasha Lunina, Denys Lushchyk, Serhiy Malyi, Dmytro Moglenets, Ivan Morarash. Dmytro Myslinchuk, Olha Oborina, Mykhailo Ohirko, Kyrylo Piddubnyi, Liubov Ploskonosova, Roman Prokopchuk, Yaroslav Pushkarchuk, Liza Pyrozhkova, Oleksandr Roshchyn, Oleksandr Safonov, Vadym Smarchenko, Sofiia Buhrii, Sofiko, Nikoletta Stoyanova, Anton Venchak, Albina Vynar, Іvanusa Volodymyr, Ivanka Kate Yakovyna, Oleksii Yeroshenko, Vadym Zadoroghny

Visions du Réel, Switzerland
Burning Lights Competition - Special Mention