One of the most compelling types of anti-war films are the idyllic interruptions. Paradise, or even just normal life, is interrupted by the sudden and unexpected violence of machine guns and missiles. This is a tradition ripe with classic anti-war films like Red Sorghum (Zhang Yimou, 1987) and Shttl (Ady Walter, 2022). Divia, an experimental Ukrainian documentary from director Dmytro Hreshko, breathes a new wind into this sub-genre with its innovative and avant-garde focus on Ukrainian wildlife and the landscape more broadly before and during the war.

The title refers to the Slavic goddess of nature and wildlife, though neither that connection nor anything else is ever verbalised onscreen. Divia is basically a silent film. The only words spoken are distant and largely indistinct – not unlike the noises of the non-human animals throughout the short 79 minute runtime. Hreshko’s film also fits in within the Ukrainian tradition of poetic filmmaking where Soviet filmmaking standards were rejected in favour of the radical avant-garde with poetic visuals. Oleksander Dovzhenko’s Earth (1930), with its nationally self-conscious undertones, seems to be a particularly key reference for the crew of Divia.

Just like the anti-natural world horde of Saurun’s army in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the bad guys in real life do their best to break nature in their quest for total conquest. The film documents “Russian military’s eco-crimes,” in the words of the director’s statement: animal carcasses, wide-scale deforestation, artillery litter, and seas of forsaken military equipment. The drone aerial footage that captures most of the footage is itself a reminder of the importance of army and civilian drones in the Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression.

One of the more intriguing choices is the structure. The easier decision would have been the straightforward paradise to apocalyptic wasteland evolution of the Ukrainian landscape. And while the arch certainly bends this way, Divia is punctuated by a proud and resilient landscape and wildlife. Co-cinematographers Hreshko and Volodymyr Usyk still find beautiful images even 60 minutes into the documentary when, hypothetically, the land should be at its worst. It’s a hopeful vision for Ukrainian victory where the birds still fly, muscular bears still roam, and trees stand bold—a reminder for Ukrainians that while yes, Russia has ravaged the land, they will never eradicate it of its beauty.

The ambient and droning score by Sam Slater, who created a collaborative experimental supergroup called Osmium with now Hollywood-darling Hildur Guðnadóttir, accompanies and pushes against the natural landscapes. The technologically-infused score creates another kind of strong juxtaposition with the much more raw natural environment. The ambient mood of the music makes for a circularity too, pointing to the cyclical reality of the human destruction of the environment and Mother Nature’s consequential resilience.

Divia premiered in the Official Competition of the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.