Short film

Shelter

2025 · 16 min

An immersive, somber VR journey through intimate wartime moments that is emotionally heavy and quietly devastating.

Directed by: Sjors Swierstra, Ivanna Khitsinska
Genres: Documentary

Overview: Shelter is a virtual reality documentary directed by Sjors Swierstra (The Netherlands) and co-directed by Ivanna Khitsinska (Ukraine) that offers an intimate look at the war in Ukraine. The film immerses the viewer in everyday scenes: from a tender conversation between pregnant women in an underground maternity ward in Kyiv to the heart-wrenching funeral of a soldier in Lviv. From the tense preparation of soldiers in a frontline barracks to the breathtaking performance of a symphony orchestra in a basement in Kharkiv. In Shelter, the audience is invited to step into a virtual space with people from Ukraine, to witness moments of shared humanity and reflect on the cost of war.

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Directed by: Sjors Swierstra, Ivanna Khitsinska
Genres: Documentary

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone: bleakstrength 3 of 3
melancholicstrength 3 of 3
tensestrength 2 of 3
earneststrength 2 of 3
Pacing: slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: war
grief
survival
family
trauma
Places: hospital
military
big city
Era: contemporary
Audience: adult
Form: documentary
Content intensity: Gore mild
Language mild
Violence mild
Sex none

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	2
Horror	3
Humour	1
Realism	9
Romance	1
Tension	6
Darkness	8
Complexity	4
Emotional weight	9

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