The 17th Odesa International Film Festival (OMIFF) will present a special programme titled “Women in the Military: 8 Years of Visibility” in cooperation with the VETERANKA movement.
The Veteranka movement — the first and only community of Ukrainian women with combat experience — was founded eight years ago, in 2018. Today it includes more than 3,000 members: active servicewomen and veterans. In 2018, the organization helped open 63 combat positions for female service members that had previously been inaccessible. In 2026, thanks to the initiative of the movement, Law No. 13037 was adopted, introducing a mechanism to combat harassment in the armed forces.
The programme “Women in the Military: 8 Years of Visibility” will feature documentaries and serialized projects from different years, dedicated to the experiences of Ukrainian women in the military from the beginning of the Russia–Ukraine war to the present.
Films to be shown at the 17th Odesa International Film Festival as part of the programme include:
“Invisible Battalion” (2017), directed by Iryna Tsilyk, Svitlana Lishchynska, Alina Gorlova
“Invisible Battalion” consists of six stories of Ukrainian servicewomen. The protagonists differ in age, profession, and life experience, but all are united by war. The film became part of the eponymous human rights project dedicated to women’s rights in the security and defense sector.
“Cuba & Alaska” (2025), directed by Yehor Troyanovskyi
Cuba and Alaska are friends, combat medics, and members of the VETERANKA movement who save lives on the front line. Together they face the daily challenges of war, supporting each other with humor and friendship, while the front gradually distances them from their loved ones and the lives they had before the war.
“GENERATION 2014” (2025), directed by Yevhen Titarenko
A six-episode documentary-drama series about volunteers of the “Hospitallers” medical battalion. Director Yevhen Titarenko worked on the project for ten years, observing the characters from the start of the war in 2014 through the full-scale invasion. The series tells the story of people who have been saving lives at the front for more than a decade and continue their work during the full-scale war.
“Don’t Ask Me If I Killed” (2026), directed by Olena Maksiom
A personal war diary filmed by director Olena Maksiom over more than 1,000 days of the full-scale invasion. After the war began, she voluntarily joined the military and later combined service with documenting frontline reality. The film tells the story of people forced to live and fight under constant threat.
The programme “Women in the Military: 8 Years of Visibility” brings together stories filmed in different years and by different authors, all connected by a shared experience. Together, these films document the changes that Ukrainian society, the armed forces, and individuals have undergone over the past decade.
Festival passes for the 17th Odesa International Film Festival can be purchased here:
https://new.oiff.com.ua/festivalpass
This year, the Odesa International Film Festival will take place in Kyiv from August 27 to September 4, with support from the State Film Agency of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.
