Toronto-Bound Ukrainian Political Satire ‘To the Victory!’ Nabbed by Best Friend Forever for World Sales (EXCLUSIVE)

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired international rights to Valentyn Vasyanovych’s “To the Victory!” in the run up to its world premiere at Toronto.

Set to bow in Toronto’s Platform competitive section, “To the Victory!” is set in a new future and stars Vasyanovych as the film’s protagonist as a director who is out of work in post-war Ukraine.

Weaving fiction and some autobiographical elements, the film sees the filmmaker grappling with the absence of his wife and daughter who’ve built a new life in Vienna. Confused and restless, he’s convinced that things will get better.

The critically acclaimed filmmaker previously won best film at Venice Horizons with ‘Atlantis’ in 2019, and was back on the Lido with “Reflection” which competed in 2022.

Vasyanovych shot “To the Victory!” in Kiev during the war and faced numerous challenges, including frequent power outages.

“Before the war began, I had already lost the chance to work in my profession due to mismanagement in Ukraine’s film industry,” said Vasyanovych.

“Still, I hoped that with time, new leadership would bring change. As I watched close friends lose their families and worried about my own wife and daughter who had left the country, my belief in a hopeful, post-war future began to fade. I feared that, after victory, the weariness of war would once again open the door to populist rule,” said the filmmaker, adding that the “fear stayed with (him) and was the impetus for the creation of this film.” He said everything depicted in the film “is true” except for the fact his family returned to Ukraine.

Martin Gondre and Charles Bin, Best Friend Forever’s co-founders, said the film reteams them with Vasyanovych following “Atlantis.”

“The film marks a new step in his cinema and once again explores the near future. It is not about the war anymore, but what comes next,” said Gondre and Bin. “It takes a highly ironic look at itself, evoking the kind of work Jafar Panahi is known for,” they continued.

“To the Victory!” is produced by Anna Yatsenko and Volodymyr Yatsenko at ForeFilms (“Atlantis,” “Reflection”) and Vasyanovych and Iya Myslytska at Arsenal Films, and co-produced by Marija Razgute at M-Films (“Slow,” “The Visitor”).

Best Friend Forever’s fall line-up is headlined by “Egghead Republic” by Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja. The company will also present several Cannes movies in the fall festival circuit, including “A Useful Ghost” by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke which took home home the Grand Prize at Critics’ Week; and “Sleepless City” by Guillermo Galoe which nabbed the SACD Award.