Rock Paper ScissorsDirected by Franz Böhm, 2024

The Ukraine conflict is Europe’s largest since the Second World War. One could argue that the modern roots lie in the 2013 Euromaidan protests which encouraged counter-reaction in Moscow’s occupation of Crimea and backing of pro-Russian separatists in Donbas. However, this conflict is much older, and also reflects Putin’s refusal to accept the geo-political status quo of Ukraine with its increasingly Brussels-leaning orientation. The global consequences of this territorial war are as significant as the human displacement and humanitarian crisis which it has generated. Rock Paper Scissors, a film-short on the Ukrainian war, is a sensitive but (still) gruesome example of the truism that a picture paints a thousand words. Inspired by a true story, the film shows Ivan and his doctor father operating a makeshift hospital on the front lines of the Ukrainian war. They save thousands of lives among Ukrainian reservists and local people hunkering down against Russian missiles. Then Russian combatants breach their lines, leaving Ivan with an impossible choice: either to flee or to stay and protect his father, patients, and fellow Ukrainians.

Rock Paper Scissors was co-written by director Franz Böhm and a Ukrainian teenager ‘Ivan’, whom Böhm met by chance after Ivan fled to Britain. Ivan (whose full name has not been shared) will never know about the film’s BAFTA win or its nomination in the Action film category for the 2026 Oscars. At just 18, he was killed in battle after returning to Ukraine in January 2024 to fight for his country. Bohm says Ivan leaves behind a powerful legacy:

Our whole team think about him a lot. It was his story and his experience, but also his commitment to the film, his readiness to tell the story with us, that is at least now a small part of this very important public debate about Putin’s war with Ukraine…Rock Paper Scissors has already picked up a weighty accolade from inside Ukraine.

Our whole team think about him a lot. It was his story and his experience, but also his commitment to the film, his readiness to tell the story with us, that is at least now a small part of this very important public debate about Putin’s war with Ukraine…Rock Paper Scissors has already picked up a weighty accolade from inside Ukraine.

With the war still raging, the film had to be shot in the UK, mostly in North Wales. But getting its Ukrainian cast in place, including Oleksander Rudynksi, who plays Ivan and is one of the country’s leading actors, was problematical and was obtained only with Ukranian president Volodymyr........

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