The film title is a phrase built into the 21st-century humanist’s vocabulary. It comes with the package of empathetic morality that defines the best of us. It also has its origins in the ancient Jewish philosopher Hillel the Elder, who taught: “if I am not for myself, then who will be for me? But when I am for myself, then what am ‘I’? And if not now, when?”. Maybe there is a sly play behind director Nicole Medvecka’s title choice for her new doc detailing the subculture life inhabited by the now famous SHUM Rave DJs and artists in the far eastern part of Ukraine before and during the war. The title itself inspires action and makes the action personable: We must act. But, perhaps – just perhaps – the title choice intentionally harkens back to its Jewish origins as a nod toward the Ukraine of old, where nearly one in three citizens was Jewish. The Russians – just as they are doing now – are in part responsible for the destruction of that culture.
Who If Not Us? is a brief (the movie has a duration of 66 minutes), mostly non-narrative portrait of young artistic adults in the eastern part of Ukraine, about 60 kilometres from the front line. On the second intertitle, a few minutes into the film, there is an easy-to-spot grammatical error in a line describing the new context for the DJs after the start of the war: “Some of their homes are under russian occupation since then.” The word “Russian” should be capitalised as it is a proper noun. This is not playing grammar police or lambasting a team of small filmmakers whose first language is not English. This “error” is a representative testament to the incredibly personal and homey documentary that follows. And at home, it is okay to make mistakes. Perhaps not coincidentally, “SHUM” is all capitalised.
Medvecka began shooting before the war with different intentions, but the context changed with the new Russian aggression and the story became clearer. The people she talks to have one commonality: they are young. They have a future of possibilities; the collective sum of her choice of interview subjects can be summarised. The most interesting voices are the SHUM Rave DJs who wax philosophically on the meaning of art during war. Their raves – an incredibly modern sonic and visual phenomenon – contradict the VHS footage they are captured on.
This is also the most interesting design choice by Medvecka. Between half and two-thirds of the photography is shot on VHS, a format much older than the chronology concerned with in the documentary. One effect of this is a subconscious reminder of previous Russian invasions of Ukraine prior to the ongoing war that began in 2021. This is nothing new, the dated and shaky photography whispers.
In an Instagram post, the director explains her rationale. “I chose to film parts of the documentary on VHS because it’s a medium that has disappeared, something that will never be produced again. For me, it symbolises a world where wars and the destruction of lives should also become relics of the past — never to return.”
We “meet” many of the young Ukrainians, but we don’t meet many of them. They are mostly dropped in anonymously and without introduction. There are also a few too many of them for any emotional anchor to set. That doesn’t mean it’s not a sad film. The ravaged landscape could be pulled straight out of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, and the stories of military vehicles rolling down the streets will make the driest of eyes a little damp. It’s the hope of the young people that struggles to find an emotional anchor in any of the interviewees – and because we don’t truly get to know many of them at their most vulnerable points, with maybe one exception, their aspirations of hope and resilience deliver in cadences of naivety and gullibility.
Who If Not Us? streams for free during the entire month of December as part of ArteKino – just click here now for more information.
