cinematography
Mirko Hans
editing
Boris Gavrilović
Mykyta Gibalenko
music
Mykyta Moiseiev
sound
Xavier Fleming
production design
Olga Yurasova
costumes
Miriam Waldenspuhl

cast
Arthur Aliiev (Vitaly)
Yelyzaveta Tsilyk (Eugenia)
Anna Yaremchuk-Bobalo (Tetyana)
Klara Lange (Fiona)
Alina Danko (Alina)
Andrii Kudin (Maxim)

production
kalekone film
co-production
ZDF Das Kleine Fernsehspiel
producers
Katharina Kolleczek
Lea Neu
Jennifer Drake
co-producer
Chris Tremann

in collaboration with
University of Television and Film Munich
with the support of
FFF Bayern
in association with
PHAROS – The Post Group
Kamera Ludwig
Lithuanian Tax Incentive

112021. When 22-year-old Vitaly leaves his mother Tetyana and his beloved sister Eugenia behind in Ukraine, he dreams of starting a new life in Munich, Germany. Struggling to find where he belongs in a foreign country, he eventually joins a student theater group. Everything changes with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Eugenia and Tetyana are forced to flee. Overnight, two harsh realities land on Vitaly’s doorstep: the global political situation and his own family conflicts.

2026 Camouflage
2023 I See Them Bloom (short)
2021 Jobless Knight (short)
2020 Cocoon (short)
2019 All My Children (short)
2018 Avidya (short)
2016 Sinnspagat (doc)

“On the one hand, this story is tied to my own experience: migrating to Germany in 2013, searching for a new home and the growing urge to reconnect with my Ukrainian roots after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Camouflage addresses the dilemma of living in the space between different identities through the journey of the main character, Vitaly. At the same time, this is no individual coming-of-age story, since migration and war are collective existential experiences. This is why we portray the fates of others, alongside Vitaly’s. Eugenia, his sister, is forced to flee and cannot relate to the seemingly peaceful life in Western Europe, with her own girlfriend missing on the front. Vitaly's mother, a teacher during the Soviet regime, refuses to believe that the war is real until the very last moment. Fiona, their host in Germany, feels increasingly overwhelmed by the emotions of her guests. Camouflage interweaves these coexisting experiences, with all the confusion and contradictions they entail, rather than insisting on a simplified truth.” (Mykyta Gibalenko)

Mykyta Gibalenko (Melitopol, Ukraine, 1993) studied mechanical engineering while exploring visual art. In 2013, Gibalenko moved to Germany, where he worked as an engineer, while collaborating with the independent theater scene in Munich. He directed his first film, the documentary Sinnspagat, in 2016 and independently produced and directed several short films. In 2019, Gibalenko switched his main focus to cinema and studied directing at the University of Television and Film in Munich. Since 2022, his works have focused on the identity of Ukrainians living abroad: the TV series Nebo Ta Zemlya (2022); his short film I See Them Bloom (2023), which was nominated for the German Short Film Award; and now his debut feature Camouflage.