Authored by UMIH Intern Emma Sciarretta
On October 22, the UMIH was honored to hold the first screening of the film War Came to My Home, with its director, Dr. Marusya Bociurkiw, in attendance. The film is set in an undisclosed location in Lviv, Ukraine, and tells the story of women who gather to weave camouflage nets for the Ukrainian army. Through her documentary works, Bociurkiw explores collective memory, connection through solidarity, and how identity is not inherited, but continually produced, felt, and contested.
The film shows the workshop where women weave camouflage nets. The design of the nets is irregular but also very intentional and practiced. One of the women explains that they receive instructions from the military; the nets should reflect the seasons and have a specific light and dark colour ratio to mimic and blend in with their surroundings. These workshops were organized from the very first days of the invasion and are constantly needed, as one woman said that the nets “don’t just protect military equipment but save our boys’ lives.”
As the film continues, women share their stories about what brought them to Lviv and to that workshop. The workshops are not only a place where individuals can contribute to the war effort, but a space for women to find connection. They share food, talk and laugh, or are quiet, but are not alone in their pain and grief. In a scene where they are preparing to send the nets to the frontline, every woman in the workshop holds the net, singing the Ukrainian national anthem as they roll up the net to “fill it with victory.” They fold in children’s school paintings for the soldiers to “support their battle morale.” The film centers the small, everyday tasks that women are doing alongside the war effort, as they vow that Ukrainians will stay until the end.
The screening of the film was followed by an open discussion. Bociurkiw explained that she visited Lviv a year ago doing research for a book and had also wanted to do some volunteer work. After learning about the workshops online, she went on a semi-regular basis, helping weave nets and collecting stories from the women there. The film shows how ordinary people’s lives have been affected by war, and Bociurkiw noted that war “does not only destroy but it is oddly generative.” Women take leadership roles they might not have taken before, they sustain everyday needs, they raise and homeschool children, and build kinship networks; the film foregrounds women’s labour and experience.
Through War Came to my Home, Bociurkiw highlights the experience of displacement and the relational spaces that emerge from it. The net weaving workshops reveal how forging bonds and sharing food and culture create territory when home is no longer one specific place. Bociurkiw emphasized the importance of documenting the experiences of those living in borderlands. Filmmaking allows her to present different perspectives that an audience cannot unsee and encourages people to consider how war enters domestic, communal, and emotional life.