A Poem for Little People, on OVID.tv

Not every Ukrainian who serves their country wears a uniform. However, the volunteer evacuation teams still very definitely risk their lives. They travel into neighborhoods under bombardment to rescue the elderly and infirm—and their pets too. Filmmaker Ivan Sautkin was one of them. He made this documentary while desperately shuttling his most vulnerable countrymen to relative safety. American paramedic Pete Reed was also part of the team, but he didn’t live to see Sautkin’s film, A Poem for Little People, which is now streaming on OVID.tv.

This is a terrible title, but it comes from a terrific scene, focusing on the elderly Taisia as she reads the blistering poem she wrote (in Russian) for the Russian soldiers committing Putin’s war crimes. She allows them no illusions regarding their illegal dirty business in Ukraine.

Taisia probably isn’t going anywhere because her downstairs crony Zinaida is definitely staying put. She watches the motorway outside her window, calling in every Russian vehicle that passes to the Ukrainian defense force. They are the exceptions to the rule. In most cases, Anton, the team leader, uses grimly accurate language to convince the elderly to leave their homes.

Regardless of the title, Sautkin’s film puts a human face on Putin’s war crimes, over and over and over again. Frankly, the suffering and destruction it documents ought to be more shocking, yet such images have been disseminated quite widely—but people of bad faith keep ignoring them.

Still, Sautkin’s perspective embedded within the evacuation team presents a new way of looking at Putin’s war. Every call offers unique challenges. One of the most interesting examples is the elderly woman requesting help hiding or safe-keeping her building’s historical marker honoring former resident Levko Lukianenko, the Soviet dissident and Ukrainian independence leader. Right away, they get her point regarding its significance and the potential danger it represents. (It is no mere plaque, by the way, it is big, awkward, and heavy.)

It is crystal clear watching Sautkin’s film how unified Ukraine remains. It is time for the world to force Putin to withdraw and start paying reparations. This doc can serve as another key evidentiary document. Highly recommended for the effort that went into it and the truth that came out of it, A Poem for Little People now streams on OVID.tv.