Writers: Julian Lautenbacher, Nadiia Khatymlianska and Sasha Ongley
Director: Julian Lautenbacher
Irving Berlin recognised that when there is any hint of trouble ahead, the only thing to do is dance, and Julian Lautenbacher’s new film, co-written with Nadiia Khatymlianska and Sasha Ongley premiering at BFI Flare 2026, puts that advice into practice as Ukrainian dancers Jay and Vol’demar, a couple, use dance as their own act of resistance. This 90-minute documentary filmed between 2022 and late 2025 blends lots of ideas and storytelling styles, themes and narrative strands that sometimes make its purpose – beyond celebrating artistic liberty – hard to follow, but the enduring creativity of civilians at war and the film’s postscript call for same sex equality and recognition in Ukraine will certainly resonate with those attending the festival.
To Dance is to Resist has multiple purposes, following Jay and Vol’demar through their mundane and ordinary experience of their daily lives across a number of years as they find a small flat to live in, visit the local market to debate the cost of vintage shades and Whitney Houston t-shirts or just clean their toilet at home to make their mum proud. Through this there is some reflection on Jay’s background in particular and his now longstanding estrangement from his parents who could not accept their son’s sexuality. The connection he has found not only with Vol’demar but also with the XXX dance company they formed is a common strand in LGTBQIA+ stories as new families are made from friends and likeminded allies.
The film then takes us into rehearsals with the troupe as they prepare for a series of performances and photo opportunities, adopting complex and innovative poses that will be published in zines celebrating both the beauty and camaraderie of the underground queer scene in Kyiv. It may be a deliberate choice not to include the other company members beyond these sequences in what becomes a hodge podge of the central couple’s life, but without a voice of their own or any sense of how they operate as a close friends and a working team, the film feels lacking in depth as a reflection on artist communities during a long conflict however many scenes of club nights and picnics Lautenbacher includes.
The third strand of To Dance is to Resist is dance itself, woven through the film as hyper real fantasy segments as the company blend contemporary concepts with bold New Romantic-inspired styling and avant garde showmanship. There is a grainy music video quality to some of these and the film would benefit from some insight into the meaning of these works, how they are formed beyond the rehearsals we glimpse and the reactions of the public. The strong anarchic element is both playful and disruptive but as all these segments cut across one another it is less clear what the work wants to say.
The war forms a backdrop and the film pauses to record the targeting of a children’s hospital in 2024, since classified as a war crime, although none of the protagonists are featured helping in the aftermath. Nonetheless it is important to see life, art and inclusion progressing in spite of the confines created by conflict and as war tends to be a catalyst for social and political change, there is hope for legal equality in its aftermath. In the meantime, there is always dance.
BFI Flare 2026 runs from 18-29 March.
