Us, Our Pets and the War: a documentary by famous Ukrainian blogger Anton Ptushkin to be shown in cinemas

The film Us, Our Pets and the War will be released in Ukrainian theaters on April 4.

Us, Our Pets and the War is a documentary about people and animals. If we reduce the main idea of the film to a short sentence, it will be a quote from Asia Serpinska, the founder of the Hostomel shelter, "Save animals to stay human".

This film is an attempt to show the events in Ukraine from a different angle, namely through the relationship between people and animals who have become both witnesses and sometimes victims of this war.

The main characters in the film are not only cats, dogs, bears, lions, lemurs, and a Yemeni chameleon named Ihor but also the people who rescue them, risking their lives. The film features many foreigners, for whom the heroism of Ukrainians in rescuing animals was a real eye-opener.

Us, Our Pets and the War is a documentary created as part of a Ukrainian-Canadian co-production. The project took 1.5 years to complete.

"This film was originally made with a Western audience in mind because it seemed to me that everyone in Ukraine already knows everything. But then I realized that a lot of what I filmed would be interesting and understandable to Ukrainians too. That's how I came up with the idea to make a separate movie for our audience and show it in Ukrainian cinemas, not on YouTube. I'm curious to see how it will turn out," Anton Ptushkin comments.

Anton Ptushkin shared the official trailer of the movie on his channel:

The main Ukrainian partners of the film are monobank and Visa, and the exclusive media partner and platform for the online premiere of the film is the MEGOGO media service.

"We are very grateful to our partners for finding opportunities to support the film," Zoia Soshenko, the film's producer, comments.

Us, Our Pets and the War will open the annual DocKyivFest international medium-length documentary film festival on March 28, and will be available in Ukrainian cinemas starting April 4, 2024. However, it will not be available on YouTube. Green Light Films, a film distribution company, will be responsible for the Ukrainian distribution. The film will be the first Ukrainian project for the company.

"An important part of our mission is to support Ukrainian talent and socially important films," Veronika Yasinska, Director of Green Light Films, said.

Green Light Films is an independent Ukrainian film distribution company with an ambition to become a leader in its field, contributing to positive changes in the local market. Its goal is literally to give the green light to changes in the industry. Their task is to develop direct relationships for the acquisition and distribution of all rights to commercially oriented and prestige titles with strong theatrical potential for the Ukrainian audience.

The strategic and key direction of Green Light Films' development is the acquisition of British, American and European films and direct distribution of all rights in Ukraine. Its special focus is on working with Ukrainian talents and supporting Ukrainian cinema.