SHE / ВОНА

Aug 3
2 min read

2026 / 109' / documentary, experimental / Ukraine

“She” is a four-year observational documentary and intimate diary following the lives of three women — Olha, Olena, and Nina — whose destinies become intertwined through the town of Bolhrad, Ukraine’s 88th Battalion, and the war.

Since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the filmmaker has accompanied them with her camera, documenting their lives through the end of 2025.

“She” is a story about waiting.

Waiting becomes a way of life: in bomb shelters, through volunteering, and in the endless anticipation of a single message — “Alive,” “+” or “4.5.0.” It is a story of love forced to grow up alongside war, a love that gives these women the strength to endure, survive, and keep moving forward despite impossible circumstances.

The film portrays three ordinary yet extraordinary women who carry the invisible weight of the home front, holding together their families while their husbands serve at the front. Over four years of war, they undergo profound transformations — from believing the war will end quickly and dreaming about the future, to confronting grief, despair, prolonged uncertainty, and dependence on antidepressants. The loss of a child and the birth of a child, a wedding and the funeral of a fallen comrade unfold side by side. Life and death coexist every day, reflecting the reality experienced by millions of Ukrainians.

“She” reveals the war’s invisible destruction: the psychological wounds and emotional scars that quietly reshape an entire nation.

Set against the women’s everyday lives, the film also follows the daily reality of their husbands serving in Ukraine’s 88th Battalion. This parallel narrative creates a powerful contrast between the front line and the home front, bridging the emotional distance between soldiers and civilians, and revealing that although they inhabit different worlds, they are fighting the same war.

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DIRECTOR - TETIANA STANIEVA

Biography

Tetiana Stanieva is a Ukrainian film director, producer, screenwriter, and folklorist, as well as the founder and festival director of the OKO International Ethnographic Film Festival, Ukraine’s only international festival dedicated to ethnographic cinema. Born into the Bulgarian community of Ukrainian Bessarabia, she explores memory, cultural heritage, identity, and the human experience of war through long-term observational documentary filmmaking. Her work focuses on communities whose stories are rarely represented on screen, combining ethnographic research with intimate cinematic observation.

Selected filmography