A Butterfly’s Vision: The War in Donbas as Seen by a Traumatized Ukrainian

Butterfly Vision is the first feature film of Ukrainian filmmaker Maxim Nakonechny. Presented in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, the work was highly noticed.

The film tells the story of Lilia, a soldier who returns to her family after several months of captivity in Donbas. The story, which shows the city of Kiev under bombs in the visions of its main character, unfortunately took on an almost prophetic dimension after the Russian invasion.

The idea for this film was born in 2018, when Maxim Nakonechny was editing a documentary about Ukrainian women participating in the war.

Women in War

One of them said that he had made a deal with his comrades: they had to kill him rather than give him to the enemy as a prisoner. It got me thinking about what awaits a female soldier when captured by the enemy and how. It could be worse than death.

As I was building the story, I realized that I wanted to tell a story about hope and humanity, despite a completely desperate situation.”The director explains.

Maksim Nakonechnyi chose to replace the austerity of the Butterfly Vision story with surreal elements. Thus, a realistic representation of the characters’ lives is contrasted with the surreal dream scenes interspersed throughout the film.

Surrealism

“Lilia’s dreams reveal her deeply buried trauma, but also her strength. A deeper sense of her experiences, her decisions, and her emotions gives her a clearer view of herself and reality, and allows her to realize that a larger-scale war is inevitable.”The director analyzes.

Finally, note that Butterfly is Lily’s code name. Thus, the title reflects the character’s high degree of awareness of his situation, his responsibility for his actions and his own existence.

“It shows her ability to understand her true nature and the reality that surrounds her. Observing the war primarily from the sky, Lilia is able to see her role in it from a distance.”– says Maksim Nakonechni.