Interview with Nicole Medvecka on Who If Not Us

Nicole Medvecka is a Ukrainian documentarist based in Berlin. She also works with commercials, music videos and art projects. Two years ago, she directed her debut feature documentary Who If Not Us. This non-narrative register of the SHUM Rave DJs and artists of Eastern Ukraine premiered at ZagrebDox.

Who If Not Us has been selected to the 10th edition of the ArteKino online film festival, and it is available to stream for free during the entire month of December 2025.

Joshua Polanski – How well-known are the SHUM Rave DJs in Ukraine?

Nicole Medvecka – They’re quite well-known within Ukraine’s electronic and rave subculture. SHUM grew into a recognisable collective before the full-scale War escalated, especially in Eastern Ukraine where they played regularly and built a strong community. But what matters more than “fame” is their influence: for many young people, SHUM became a symbol of freedom, self-expression, and resistance through culture, bringing everyone together and organising events and a community for themselves.

JP – From my understanding, you began filming before the War and you had a different vision for the film. What was the original idea?

NM – Originally, I wanted to explore the emotional landscape of young creatives living in industrial Eastern Ukraine: their humour, escapism, everyday life, and how political it is to grow up on the frontline since 2014. The intention was to film their rave culture as a kind of alternative spirituality. When the full-scale War started, everything transformed. Their inner worlds, which I was documenting, ofc collided with a new external reality. The project shifted toward capturing their life in survival mode and how art can still coexist with all of it.

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