U Are the Universe is a Ukrainian feature film by Pavlo Ostrikov, developed over ten years of war and completed during Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Set in the future, the film follows Andriy, a Ukrainian space trucker who believes he is the last human left in the universe after the Earth explodes. His isolation is interrupted by a message from a French woman, Catherine, which gives his journey a new direction. What unfolds is not only a science-fiction story, but a reflection on distance, vulnerability, and the need for connection.
The film combines restraint, humour, and emotional precision. It focuses instead on the human condition – how meaning, imagination, and connection can persist even in isolation.
At the same time, the film carries the reality in which it was made. It was developed during a decade shaped by war and completed under the conditions of full-scale invasion. Today, several members of the film team are serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Lead actor Volodymyr Kravchuk watched the premiere from the trenches.
This context is not separate from the film. It is part of how it exists.
U Are the Universe emerges from a context where filmmaking is inseparable from lived reality. It is part of a cultural process that continues despite disruption, loss, and danger. Rather than standing apart from these conditions, the film exists within them — as a work shaped by its time, its people, and the circumstances in which it was created.
Following its world premiere at TIFF, the film received major international recognition, including the Golden Octopus and the Silver Méliès in Strasbourg.
This screening invites the audience to engage with a work that exists both as cinema and as part of a wider reality – one in which culture continues, even under fire.
Original title: U Are the Universe
Director: Pavlo Ostrikov
Starring: Volodymyr Kravchuk, Daria Plakhtii, Alexia Depicker
Genre: Science fiction, comedy, drama
Runtime: 1 h 30 min
Country/year of production: Ukraine / 2024
