Log Line:

As the trenches dig deeper and the bodies stack higher, the ongoing situation in Eastern Ukraine remains deadly and uncertain. Having followed the war since its outbreak in 2014 & unsatisfied with recent coverage, Reece Lynch took himself, his car and his camera 2000 miles across Europe, to live for a year documenting the reality of the Ukrainian front line.

Short Synopsis:

Ukraine: The Forgotten war offers a unique insight to the war in Ukraine, which has raged since 2014. Filmed over the course of a year in Donbas, we follow Reece Lynch as he spends a year living on the frontline, embracing the danger as he follows the characters and events which shape the course of the seemingly endless war.

The film starts in the midst of a war; shelling, RPG’s, snipers, a muddle of weaponry and warning as the fighting continues and ceasefires continue to crumble. A horror show told by the soldiers living it, who give us an overview of the long lasting damage of war, the reasons for fighting, and what homeland means to them. With gripping combat action, grand-scale military events, threats, loss, pride and defeat, Ukraine: The Forgotten War tells the remarkable and personal story of Donbas, with a lasting presence on the ground, capturing a young countries arduous journey to an irretrievable peace.

Directors Statement:

My interest in Ukraine began with the revolution of 2014, in my mind an unlikely offshoot of the Arab Spring. At the time I was living with both Ukrainian and Russian housemates, and sitting together while watching the developments and destruction of a country so far away, led me to understand the incredibly difficult and complex situation that was forming on the ground there, and the fracturing of what were once two incredibly close people.

As the years slipped by, and ceasefires came and went, I found myself being ever more disappointed by the lack of information which was coming from the region, especially that which was intended for a Western audience. With a notable rise of disinformation, and lack of real interest from established media, I found that months of research still left me without a realistic grasp on what the current situation was in Donbas, for both the soldiers and civilians.

It was this gap in knowledge I wanted to fill, and what led me to leaving the unfulfilling world of commercials, and drive myself and my equipment in my car to Eastern Ukraine. What was originally meant to be a 3 month trip, spanned the length of a year as I got sucked into the unique and untold stories from the people living with war on their doorstep.

Spending 12 months living as a nomad, bouncing up and down an extensive frontline, battling hostile environments, threats and disinformation, will likely be the most memorable moment of my life, and no documentary I could produce could ever bring justice to the the hundreds of stories, emotion and raw strength that I encountered on my journey.

The documentary itself was ever changing, as new narratives and events transpired, from a summer of peace to a winter of blood, the laborious cost of war is etched into the fabric of this film, echoed as always by the large throng of soldiers wanting to share their stories, woes and fears, ever-fearing this could be their last chance to prove their existence.

Trying to pull all this together into a comprehensive story, aimed at a broad western audience with an assumed lack of knowledge has been incredibly difficult, but I feel proud of the piece that I’ve made, the engaging story it tells, and the high sense of engagement it transmits.

The largest factor of hope I found in Ukraine was not that the war would end soon, people were too realistic for that, but that the wider world would again start to pay attention to their plight, and realise what was happening on the borders of Europe.

In their eyes, only being in the public eye would lead to peace, and I feel confident and proud that my film Ukraine: The Forgotten War, will be a step towards that goal.