The Illusion of a Quiet Night
On the night of July 27–28, 2025, forty cinematographers and hundreds of people captured a single summer night in Ukraine.
TRAILER
Simple Structures: Films of Docudays UA-2026
Traces
Authors: Alisa Kovalenko, Co-director: Marysia Nikitiuk
Ukraine, Poland202682’
In original language, available with English subtitles and with audio description (settings in the lower right corner of the video player). Content warning: violence.
In original language, available with English subtitles and with audio description (settings in the lower right corner of the video player). Content warning: violence.
Traces shines a light on Ukrainian women who, after surviving conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and torture during Russia’s war, refuse to remain silent. Through the journey of Iryna Dovhan, a former captive turned activist, who documents testimonies of affected women on the de-occupied territories of Ukraine, the film weaves a collective portrait of trauma while opening space for hope. Iryna gathers other survivors into a circle of courage and care. Together, they transform their pain into a force for truth, justice, and mutual support.
More than a document of war crimes, the film is a testament to resilience and the solidarity of women standing side by side.
Producer:
Olha Bregman, Natalia Libet, Co-producers: Violetta Kamińska, Izabela Wójcik, Dariusz Jabłoński
Camera:
Alisa Kovalenko
Sound:
Mariia Nesterenko, Maciej Amilkiewicz
Editing:
Nikon Romanchenko, Alisa Kovalenko, Milenia Fiedler
Production:
2Brave Productions & Message Film
Distribution:
Stranger Films Sales
Read more about the film on DOCUDAYS UA
More films in the programme of Simple Structures: Films of Docudays UA-2026
Silent Flood
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Don't Ask Me If I Killed
A meditation on endurance and moral gravity — on what remains of a person when the world forces them to fight.
Where Everything Disappears
Dmytro Dokunov, a Ukrainian nature-loving DOP and digital artist is enrolled in a combat unit to face the Russian invasion.
The Blessed Ones
Suddenly thrown into a brutal war, a group of Ukrainian artists must face a once unimaginable question: What can artists do when the world is burning?
The Silence of Others
A cinematic portrait of the first attempt in history to prosecute crimes of Franco’s 40-year dictatorship in Spain.
Written Down As Father
The spoken and unspoken correspondence between an abandoned daughter and a father defending his homeland.
Apocalypse Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and the Day After Tomorrow
Why do some people choose to stay in their homeland even when each day might be their last?
Ember
In 2022, as Russian forces reached the outskirts of Kyiv, an elderly couple lost their home and everything in it.
Balance
What endures and what is missing, even when one has found refuge?
Homecoming
A boy returns home via a robotic dog, his mechanical avatar, which he controls from his room in Poland.
One Day I Wish to See You Happy
Against the backdrop of war in Ukraine, filmmakers Max and Maryna try to hold on to their relationship as everyday life slowly falls apart around them.
Peace for Nina
A documentary about a mother whose life has been shattered by war.
Message in the Bottle
A documentary-experimental video about the personal and collective connection to Ukraine’s lost waters: the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and the Kakhovka Reservoir.
Scales
A short autofiction film blending personal video archives, performed scenes, and experimental sound into a road trip.
Broken Glass
Director searches for a gentler way back to artistic practice within the routines of meal preparation - one that embraces imperfection, vulnerability and transience.
Pietà
A short documentary confession about a mother who has lost her son in war.
And Where Now?
A multi-part video work created from materials filmed by the artist along Ukraine’s eastern frontlines while working as a fixer.
I Am a Rock
Playing with Magritte’s “The Treachery of Images” and a song by Simon & Garfunkel, the work delves into the paradoxical relationship between nature, language, and representation.