Confronted by the increasing threat of a full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, Vinnytsia midwife, spiritualist, and writer Oleksandra “Sasha” Basko began to record a real-time biography. Her powerful war diary tracked her reactions and those of her husband Slava to the outbreak of a war that would forever disrupt their lives. The result is a vivid, raw, and very personal account of wartime, set down as it happened. 

A copy of Basko’s war diary made its way to New York and, through mutual friends, into the hands of New Orleans-based theater director Natasha Ramer. Ramer immediately envisioned Basko’s words as a play. She set out to adapt the diary into a theatrical script that she filmed as A Non-Fictional War. 

Ramer spent her earliest years in Ukraine and then later years in Lithuania. She graduated from Moscow’s Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) before becoming one of Lithuania’s leading theater directors. She came to the United States in 1982 and, eventually, made her way to New Orleans, where she established Moscow Nights, a cultural education nonprofit. Committed to bringing the arts of East-Central Europe to Louisiana, Moscow Nights has developed a rich program of theatrical and musical events over the past 25 years. For example, a virtual live online performance of Andrei Kureichik’s Insulted. Belarus(sia) during the COVID shutdown of 2020 gave attention to the vibrant underground theatrical scene in Belarus at that time.

Ramer worked with New Orleans professional actors Erin Cessna and Casey Groves to translate the emotional core of Basko’s A Non-Fictional War to the stage and screen. The couple’s intimate dialogue begins in the days leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion. Sasha is angry, proclaiming that she doesn’t “want troops from another country to save us from ourselves.” Slava, trying to calm their domestic distress, tells her that he does not “believe Russia will start a war.” Once the war begins, Sasha’s anger grows as she cries, “they took my world away.” Slava, previously unsure that there would be a war now asks, “what if we suddenly lose the war?” Cessna and Groves add panic to the pathos of Basko’s diary.

Vinnytsia, in southwestern Ukraine, had been initially spared much of the damage inflicted on central and eastern Ukraine, having been hit by Russian rockets and drones only sporadically. But the Russians stepped up their rocket and drone attacks against this city, aiming to destroy Vinnytsia’s utilities infrastructure and raise the levels of terror in the city’s population. Basko’s diary reveals how the city had been traumatized at the outset of the war.   That trauma only heightens as the conflict bears down on the hopes and fears of Ukrainians throughout the country.

In recognizing A Non-Fictional War as one of the best films at this year’s Barcelona Exceptional Film Festival and The Best Film Festival, the jurors recorded, “Theatre and cinema should never be at odds. They complement each other perfectly and Natasha demonstrates this in the wonderful feature film where the performance transcends both arts and fuses them into one, full of beauty and drama.” 

Ramer adds that “we could never have achieved the level of success we did without the creativity of our cinematographer and post-production editor, Antony Sandoval, who teaches at Tulane University. Together, we meticulously crafted every scene to bring forth not just the film itself but also a vibrant spectrum of sound, color, and the unique special effects characteristic of experimental cinema.”

Basko’s written words transcend Ramer’s and Sandoval’s artistic achievement, stunning as that may be. As soon as she held Basko’s diary in her hands, Ramer realized that the young writer had captured the stark horror of war and the turmoil it inflicts on families. Basko’s brutal observations express the turbulence that war brings to everyday life. The result is a transformative journey from the depths of despair to resilience. Her diary is a stunning testament to the endurance of the human spirit, a narrative that transcends time and place. Basko converts her personal story into a universal plea to end the agony of all wars.

Ramer underscores Basko’s achievement. “While working on the play script,” she observes, “I was amazed by Sasha's profound metaphysical New Age spiritualism; it opened my awareness to a whole new Ukraine. Throughout the film, during times of stress and need, she deeply connects with the 'angelic' soloist featured in a movement of Mieczław Weinberg’s “Kaddish” Symphony No. 21, 1991 performed by the Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Hobart Earle. Through the music, I revealed this deep spiritualism as Sasha ascends to a higher state of being while seeking answers."

Basko, in a most intimate exchange with her husband, compellingly speaks for millions when she writes, “As the length of the war began to be measured in weeks, I became more and more resolved in my desire to stay here on our land.” As Ramer understood, the arts capture profound longing more revealingly than any news story. 

The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author and do not reflect the views of the Kennan Institute.