VARTA is a documentary film project created to preserve the truth of the war in Ukraine through real people and real experiences, turning personal stories into historical testimony.
About VARTA — A Documentary Project Preserving the Truth of War
VARTA – Ukrainian War Documentary Project
VARTA is a seven-episode documentary series created by the NEUTRINO filmmaking team.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the team has been documenting Ukrainian soldiers to eternally imprint their faces in modern history.
Each episode is a self-contained documentary novella focused on one brigade and the people inside it — those who undertake highly complex tasks and achieve victories on the battlefield.
VARTA exists to preserve memory, document reality, and speak to the world through cinema — with respect, accuracy, and human truth.
Manifest
We believe that history is shaped by individual lives — not slogans, statistics, or propaganda.
VARTA highlights the modern war through personalities: real faces of heroes who fight for Ukraine’s freedom.
We do not reconstruct events.
We document them as they unfold — with respect, accuracy, and human truth.
Our responsibility is to memory.
Our method is cinema.
Goals
• Preserve the memory of Ukrainian Heroes
• Increase global attention to the war in Ukraine
• Honor the Warriors
• Provide future generations the opportunity to study history through personal stories of soldiers
• Inform the public about the realities of war, the role of the military, and their personal experiences
Episode Structure
Each VARTA episode is a short documentary novella that can be watched independently.
Every episode focuses on:
• One military unit or group
• One specific context or location
• One period of time
Together, the episodes form a broader portrait of the war — fragment by fragment.
Episode Roadmap
CHERUBIM — Part 1 — June 2023 (released)
RIDERS ON THE STORM — Part 2 — May 2024 (released)
SHE — Part 3 — September 2024 (in production)
HANDS OF GOD — Part 4 — November 2024 (teaser / in production)
SOIL — Part 5 — March 2025 (in production)
VOICES — Part 6 — July 2025 (in production)
SALT OF WAR — Part 7 — October 2025 (in production)
Core team
Yevhen Matvienko — Director / Cinematographer
“I got tired of learning about Ukrainian heroes posthumously… so I decided that I would document the stories of our defenders and show their memories, their images, and their portraits.”
Maryana Shafro — Producer / Co-founder
“The war in Ukraine has brought a lot of pain… but to prevent it from consuming us, we must turn this pain into fuel and take action. That’s how the VARTA project was born for me.”