Ivanka-Kateryna Yakovyna

Filmed during one night in July 2025 by forty filmmakers and hundreds of citizens, The Illusion of a Quiet Night paints a vast collective portrait of war-torn Ukraine. Between fear and exhaustion, moments of joy and scenes of the ordinary day to day, we watch as life goes on in spite of everything, witnessing the resilience of a nation gripped by uncertainty.

The outbreak of the war was an impetus for the active development of civil society in Ukraine. The growing wave of civic consciousness has reached even the most remote corners of society - the rave community. Those who were considered "hedonists" organized one of the largest movements in Ukraine to help places destroyed by the war, not forgetting to bring their identity, their music with them.

The film tells the stories behind six photographs taken by Ukrainian and international photographers at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. These are the stories of images that traveled the world and shaped its perception of the war in Ukraine. The stories of people whose lives were changed by being captured in these frames. This is a manifesto of the power of photography - as evidence, memory, and a weapon of truth - and of the importance of those who risk their lives to make that truth visible.