At 63, Samuel Bayer, the music video director for Nirvana and David Bowie, has seen almost everything. But a chance meeting with the soldiers of the Cultural Forces proves to be a true awakening. Facing his fears head-on, he travels to Ukraine to make a film about the people he has just met. What was planned as a standard documentary shoot will forever transform Bayer’s perspecti
ve on the world. CREW:
Director: Dmytro Hreshko
Producer: Mykolai Sierha, Illia Mkrtchian, Aleks Malyshenko
Cinematographer: Artem Poznanskyi, Dmytro Hreshko
Editor: Dmytro Hreshko, Vadym Piniahin
Sound: Dmytro Synytsia
Production and Sales
Cultural Forces / «Культурні сили»
Director
Dmytro Hreshko
Since 2018, Dmytro Hreshko has focused on documentary filmmaking, releasing his debut work that same year. He subsequently expanded his expertise through specialized programs, including the Skalka narrative film course (2019), the CinemaLab documentary course mentored by Liubov Durakova and Alisa Kovalenko (2019), and the Indie Lab school curated by Dmytro Tiazhlov and Ella Shtyka (2020).
As a key contributor to the regional film industry, he actively collaborates with the Transcarpathian Film Commission and serves as the co-founder and director of the Carpathian Mountain International Film Festival (CMIFF) in Uzhhorod. He is a regular participant in international industry events. These include the East West Talent Lab (goEast 2021), Works in Progress (Stockholm IFF 2022), East Doc Platform, Beldocs Pitching Forum, Baltic Sea Docs, Sunny Side of the Doc, CEDOC Market, Eurodoc, and DOK Leipzig Co-Pro Market in Germany. 2023. He is a member of the Ukrainian Film Academy, the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, and the Association of Non- Fiction Film of Ukraine (DFAU). In late 2024, he enlisted in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, serving in the “Cultural Forces” unit.Selected Filmography
Samuel Bayer: Beyond the Frame (2026), Divia (2025), King Lear: How We Looked for Love during the War (2023), Mountains and Heaven in Between (2021), Save Me, Doctor! (2020), Snow Leopard of the Carpathians (2019), 66 Scenes of Uzhhorod (2018) 
