Interview with Director Valentyn Vasyanovych & Producer Volodymyr Yatsenko on To the Victory!

Live from the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

To the Victory! is the first Ukrainian film to imagine what the country will look like after the war. While director Valentyn Vasyanovych certainly doesn’t imagine a prosperous utopia, he is on the whole hopeful about the future. Valentyn also plays the main character, Valyk, who is also a film director. 

After the war, Valyk is in Kyiv and returns to his craft to try making sense of his new, broken world. His oldest son, Yaryk (Hryhoriy Naumov), a video game addict who takes a gap year from university, lives with him, but his wife and daughter left for Austria during the war and stayed. If that sounds like meta-docufiction that’s because it is. The film plays fast and loose with reality as it imagines its futuristic premise.

I saw Vasyanovych’s optimism first-hand in our Zoom interview. He was cheerful, smiling, and laughing most of the time despite the language barrier between us and despite being denied the chance to leave the country to join producer Volodymyr Yatsenko, who was also our translator, in Canada for the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. 

Yatsenko translated our conversation in real-time from Ukrainian to English and vice versa. To the Victory! had its world premiere at TIFF and is part of the Platform program.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. My full review is available here.

Joshua Polanski: I wanted to start not by asking about the film, but about both of you and your families. How are things right now? 

Volodymyr Yatsenko: I’m in Toronto, so I hope I am safe. Valentin is in Kyiv. He is also as safe as he can be. Thank you for asking that. 

JP: The skyline of Kyiv defines the horizon of so many scenes. As a film set post-war, as a viewer, I felt the skyline almost felt proud and indomitable. Like a symbol of the victory. How key was the skyline to creating the visuals you wanted? Were any of these specific buildings important to that?

Valentyn Vasyanovych: Kyiv is quite a big city. It’s not that easy to destroy it all. Of course, Russia does its best, but, for now, it’s not that successful. These buildings, which we see over the window, are a very significant part of the city. [They relate to the Kyiv Cycle Track] and most people know about it. It was a very important symbol of the heart of the city. So yeah, it’s important. 

Volodymyr Yatsenko: I just saw a Facebook post and a friend of a film critic in Boston [wrote] some nice words … and she said that I'm really happy that I can see Kyiv how I remember. She's living far away now and she feels that she's almost crying because she misses it that much. We quite like that it’s worked properly.

JP: I was fascinated by the scene where Valyk and Vlad joke about filming a sex scene. The reflection from the television almost infects the picture frames behind them. A red glow eventually comes in from the right along with a siren. Was this a real-life missile siren? 

Volodymyr Yatsenko: I can easily answer this. It's just part of the film Atlantis, which Valentyn [directed] before, and it’s a scene from Atlantis. It’s a suicide scene. And Valentyn just said to his friend, “Look, we have a beautiful suicide scene. We have the sex scene, we have the other scenes.” They watch Atlantis and discuss why this film does not look like Atlantis.

JP: This takes place one year after the war is over. There is, of course, a profound hope in this since the war goes on. Can you tell me about the thinking behind that creative decision? 

Valentyn Vasyanovych: In Atlantis, I set up the end of the war in 2025. There are a lot of internal jokes about it. When the war started in 2022, [people] just started blaming [me] and [asking] why did you not put 2023 or 2024? I have more wisdom now. So, I say one year after the war, but nobody says when the war ended. I’m very experienced now. I don’t make the same mistake.

JP: I noticed a Lithuanian team worked on this film and that the Lithuanian Film Centre supported it. Can you tell me about their involvement in the film?

Valentyn Vasyanovych: We shot this film without any government money, which is very tough for Ukrainians [or any] Europeans because we always rely on [at least] some state funding. In this particular case, we had some funds from the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films, a bit of our own investment, Eurimages, and the Lithuanian Film Centre. In Lithuania, we shot the scene with the remote Q&A. The people in the room are all Lithuanians. They helped us a lot with the post-production, for example, with some services that we don't have now in Ukraine fully. They helped a bit with the color correction and the composers. Some of the post-production was on their side.

JP: As a member of the media, I couldn’t help but laugh at the filmmaker Zoom interview scene, which, of course, looks a lot like what we are doing now. I won’t ask you about the original inspiration for the film, like the woman in the film did, but I wanted to ask about this scene. When she asked the question that I’m sure you get asked every time you talk about a film, I wanted to scream “because of the fucking war!” to her. Instead, your character responded with a grace and respect that I think would have been difficult considering the gravity of the war in real life. Why did you choose to take the scene down this comedic route instead of a more serious and angry direction? 

Valentyn Vasyanovych: So, first of all, we realized that after this year that aggression doesn’t really work. That was the first thing. It probably was our first reaction when the war began, but now it’s not working. 

Volodymyr Yatsenko: From the other side, it’s Valentyn’s character. The real Valentyn. He’s a very polite person. He’s not aggressive, and this is very typical for him to have this kind of reaction. 

JP: The film ends on an unexpectedly optimistic note for contemporary Ukrainian cinema. It’s not what I expect from Ukraine at the moment. Are you generally a hopeful person? 

Valentyn Vasyanovych: That probably is just the changes that age makes for you. You want to be a little bit more optimistic closer to the end of life. It’s just the perception of things that’s going to change.

I would like to underline that there is some real hope at the end of the film and it’s also to underline the fresh new start for me and my son in their relationship. It's a new stage. [The characters] became closer and … really [like a] father and son, [unlike] in the beginning of the film. There are some rays of hope still despite all the fucking reality we are surrounded by.

JP: What’s the best way international readers of this interview and viewers of your film can support Ukraine at this moment?

Valentyn Vasyanovych: It’s quite complicated to find the proper answer because I’m making the films and can't judge it or predict [its reception]. Never. Of course, it’s a lot of internal things, internal Ukrainian things. In this film, we are probably the first Ukrainians who dare to think about what it’s going to be after the war with all of us. 

It’s also sad to say, but [this situation] could also be a possibility for some other countries. It could happen with them as well. All over the world, we are not in really good shape and everything seems to be falling apart. We are just in the middle of the storm. It doesn't mean that there aren’t some other nice places still on this planet. We would like to say to the readers of this article: pay attention to your family, to your friends. There probably is not that much time left, so have fun.

JP: Thank you both. And congratulations on the film.

Valentyn Vasyanovych: Thank you. 

Volodymyr Yatsenko: Thank you very much.