A documentary about the defenders of Mariupol, “People of Steel”, premiered with the support of Oschadbank

On October 5, Oschadbank supported the premiere of the film project “People of Steel” at the Ukrainian House. This is a documentary film by author and producer Serhiy Fomenko, a Ukrainian musician, artist, and frontman of the Mandry band.

During the event, the audience also saw a graphic series of drawings called “Chronicles of War,” created especially for the film by Ukrainian artist Matviy Vaisberg.

The main goal of the film is to keep the world and Ukrainian community focused on the painful topic of the release from captivity of Mariupol defenders, including the Azov Brigade, and other prisoners of the Russian Federation.

“This film is a real proof that Ukrainian society has not forgotten about the prisoners, some of whom have been in captivity for two and a half years. One of these prisoners is Vitaliy Losytsky, a driver-collector of the Donetsk Regional Department of Oschadbank, who was captured in Mariupol on March 29, 2022. We hope that this film will help to bring the release of Vitaliy and hundreds of other prisoners of the Kremlin closer,” Serhii Naumov, Chairman of the Board of Oschadbank, commented the premiere.

“I shoot and make documentaries about Ukrainians and Ukraine. About our history, culture, war, and the people who write this history with their lives and their blood. This is not my first film, but it is the most difficult one for me. The war for Ukraine, the battle for Mariupol, and the stories of the people of this battle are heroic, terrible, inspiring, and painful at the same time. “People of Steel is about spirit, responsibility, honesty and truth. And this truth about Russian war crimes in Ukraine, about the heroism and courage of our people - “People of Steel” - should be seen and heard by humans all over the world! To keep the focus on Ukraine every day, to do everything possible and impossible to free our heroes from the hell of captivity. People of Steel has its own mission and goal - to help free our people. This is a special purpose film,” said the author Serhii Fomenko about the film.

Work on the film began in December 2022. At the end of June 2024, the film was ready, and in July-August 2024, as part of the Culture vs War complex project, with the support of the Association “Promoting Cinema in Ukraine - Watch Ukrainian!”, pre-premiere screenings of the film took place in France, Spain, and Poland. The film “People of Steel” was also screened in Paris during the 2024 Olympic Games at the Ukraine House Volia Space Olympic Hub, at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, at the La Escuela art space in Valencia, at the Cinema Girona in Barcelona, and at the Stream Art Studio Ukraina TV in Krakow.

For more than 10 years, Oschadbank has been supporting charitable art projects and promoting contemporary Ukrainian art, including cinema. Among the projects partnered with Oschad are the film “Region of Heroes” - the first large-scale film reconstruction of real heroic stories of ordinary Ukrainians, the multimedia exhibition “On Guard of St. Sophia” about the current Russian-Ukrainian war as a result of the centuries-old confrontation between Russian and Ukrainian civilizations, the cultural project “Art in Time of War,” the exhibition of works by Ukrainian artists “Are You OK?” and “Maria Paints” - 100 unknown works by the legendary artist Maria Prymachenko, and many others.