A SIMPLE SOLDIER / ПРОСТИЙ СОЛДАТ

Leonid Nefedovich
Sep 18
3 min read

Updated: Sep 21

2025 / 96' / documentary / Ukraine, USA, England

When Russia invades Ukraine on February 24, 2022, filmmaker Artem Ryzhykov finds his world irreversibly changed. Life pulls him toward the Territorial Defense Forces, despite his fear, and he leaves behind the woman he loves, Ira, with dreams of a future that war may never allow. Given the military call sign “Canon”, Artem brings his camera to the battlefield, determined to document war from within.

Screenings schedule:

October 2, 2025 at 07:30 p.m. at the Zhovten Cinema, Kinoman Hall

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DIRECTOR - ARTEM RYZHYKOV

Biography

Artem Ryzhykov (born 1989) is a Ukrainian filmmaker from Bila Tserkva. He won the International Documentary Association's Best Cinematography award in 2015 for his work on The Russian Woodpecker. The film won the 2015 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. It also won Grand Jury prizes at ZagrebDox, Biografilm Festival, Montclair Film Festival, and Tirana International Film Festival. Ryzhykov graduated in 2010 from the Kyiv University for Theatre, Film, and Television. He was the last student of legendary Soviet cinematographer Vadim Vereshchak, and studied for several years under Bogdan Verzhbitsky. His short film, “Hindrance”, was a semi-finalist in YouTube’s Your Film Festival and was presented at the Cannes Short Film Corner as a selection from Ukraine. Artem also served as the cinematographer for “The Hydra” (2019), a documentary about the sudden rise of ecstasy in Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union, and other documentaries related to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Selected filmography

2025: A Simple Soldier

DIRECTOR - JUAN CAMILO CRUZ

Biography

Juan Camilo Cruz, honored with both an Emmy® and a BAFTA®, served as Executive Producer of the Apple TV+ documentary series Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend (2023), chronicling Lionel Messi's historic run during the 2022 World Cup. Throughout his career, Juan has gained recognition for his work as a producer on acclaimed projects, including In Her Hands (2022), a Netflix documentary about the youngest female mayor in Afghanistan, directed by Oscar®-nominated Marcel Mettelsiefen and produced in collaboration with Hillary Clinton's HiddenLight Productions. He has also collaborated with Oscar®-nominated director Matthew Heineman on films such as City of Ghosts (2017) and The Boy from Medellín (2020), both for Amazon Studios, exploring the war in Syria and the life of Colombian musician J Balvin, respectively.As a director, Juan led the documentary Venezuela: Country of Lost Children (2023) for ARTE (Germany). In 2025, his film A Simple Soldier, co-directed with Sundance-winning filmmaker Artem Ryzhykov and produced by Propagate Content and Ventureland, premiered at Sheffield DocFest — a film about the transformation of a filmmaker into a soldier on the frontlines of Ukraine, filmed over three and a half years. In 2025, he will also premiere Lost in the Jungle, co-directed with Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin and produced by Little Monster and Lightbox for National Geographic Documentary Films. Juan is an active member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA).