Cuba & Alaska (Ukraine, Belgium, France, 2025, 93′)

Italian subtitles

Thursday 8 October, 9 p.m., Cinema Fratelli Marx, Groucho Screen, Corso Belgio, 53

In collaboration with Ordine dei tecnici sanitari di radiologia medica (TSRM) e delle professioni sanitarie tecniche, della riabilitazione e della prevenzione (PSTRP) Torino, Aosta, Alessandria e Asti.

On Thursday 8 October at 9 p.m. at Cinema Fratelli Marx, Groucho Screen, Job Film Days, in collaboration with Ordine dei tecnici sanitari di radiologia medica (TSRM) e delle professioni sanitarie tecniche, della riabilitazione e della prevenzione (PSTRP) Torino, Aosta, Alessandria e Asti, presents Cuba & Alaska by Yegor Troyanovski.

The film tells the story of two young Ukrainian paramedics, Yuliia “Cuba” and Oleksandra “Alaska”, who spend each day helping the wounded along the front line of the war in Ukraine. At the heart of the story is not only the brutality of the conflict, but above all the deep bond between the two women, built on companionship, courage and mutual support. As the director has explained, his aim was less to depict the action of war than to offer “a portrait of friendship in wartime”.

Followed by a discussion with Giuseppe Smeraldi (President, Ordine TSRM e PSTRP) and Salvo Anzaldi (journalist).

Admission: tickets required.

International title: Cuba & Alaska
Original title: Cuba & Alaska
Director, screenplay: Yegor Troyanovski
Edit: Joëlle Alexis
Music: Frederik Van de Moortel
Production: 2Brave Productions

Cuba and Alaska are the nicknames of two young Ukrainian women, respectively Yulia Sidorova and Oleksandra Lysytska, that they gave themselves when they decided to become soldiers and work as paramedics serving in a unit deployed on missions to rescue wounded soldiers on the frontline. The director followed them since 2022, the year the war in Ukraine broke out. The scenes with the unit on the job, the adrenaline flowing while reaching the place where the rescue is needed, by transporting vehicles or by walking, the constant moving, the essential rapidity to arrive in time, alternate with those that capture the moments of pause, the jokes, the glimpses of private life. After being wounded, Alaska is forced into a long rehabilitation. Cuba falls in love with a colleague who is later killed in combat. Cuba and Alaska come together and pull apart, but they always stay in touch, inhabited with an energy that propels them in everything they do. 

Yegor Troyanovski. Ukrainian director, screenwriter and photography director, he has a strong professional experience in the audiovisual field. He worked on the production of movies, television programs, advertisements and music videos. In 2015 he produced his first movie, Rear, starting immediately to depict episodes from the war between Russia and Ukraine. In 2020, he debuted with Demon, his first long feature film. He’s also one of the creators of historic documentary serie Collapse: How Ukrainians Destroyed the Evil Empire.

Partial filmography: Rear (mlf, doc., 2015), Demon (doc., 2020), Cuba & Alaska (doc., 2026).