Film Review: Border Guards

Could the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine be the Day of the Revival of Ukrainian Identity, marking the beginning of a fundamental separation from the imperial ambitions of the “enemy neighbour” that are consuming Ukraine's cultural self? Perhaps it could. This idea can be read between the lines of the Ukrainian TV series Border Guards, produced by Dali Bude Films, written by M. Kutsyk, Ya. Sten, B. Hatsilyak, and K. Tymchenko, and directed by O. Yesakov.

“This is not how I imagined my birthday.” With this ironic remark, the main character, Andriy, opens the film as he suddenly realizes he's run out of ammunition during a combat operation to defend Ukraine's borders from the Russian invader on the very first day of the war. It becomes unclear what exactly is happening; is it death that awaits him, or a kind of rebirth? This gripping scene, together with the protagonist's light, offhand birthday comment, is suddenly cut short and replaced by events that took place nine months earlier. With this nine-month metaphor, the filmmakers once again draw attention to the idea of the war's first day as a kind of birth (or rebirth) of something meaningful, guiding the viewer toward the concept of conception—a return to the beginning, to where it all started. In contrast to the intensity of the first scene, the events from “nine months ago” appear simple and mundane, inviting the audience to get to know Andriy's seemingly easygoing, idle life.

However, beneath the surface of the young man's vivid, borderline-delinquent behaviour, the film subtly reveals a deeper trauma linked to his father, who is from Russia. Andriy's mother—a Ukrainian, raises him on her own, occasionally leaning on support from her brother, since, Andriy's father, a Russian smuggler, abandoned the family due to legal troubles with the Ukrainian authorities. The mother's brother urges Andriy to apply to the National Academy of the State Border Service of Ukraine in hopes of shielding him from being i