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AN
AMEЯICAN
IИ KYΪV
THE STORY
Like its key inspiration, Casablanca (1942), An American to Kyiv is an emerging “instant classic,” filled with engaging characters that represent the people affected by the real Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As the titular American in Kyiv, Rachel Weiss comes to Kyiv as a carefree tourist with her new Ukrainian friend, Alina Reznikov, a young nursing student. On the first day of the war, they start volunteering at a Kyiv hospital. In a few days, they realize they are in love with each other, a love they symbolize with identical blue and yellow friendship bracelets.
The film opens with Rachel, and Alina’s parents, Stepan and Milena, at Alina's funeral. While saving lives on the front-lines, the Russians shelled Alina’s ambulance team.
To try to comfort her daughter, Rachel’s mother Andrea sends her a video message using the 1942 film Mrs. Miniver to explain that Ukraine is fighting a “People’s War,” in which everyone—not only soldiers, but everyone—must serve the country. However, Rachel has already decided to stay in Ukraine, as long she can help the wounded and dying.
Over social media, Rachel expresses her sorrow that she could not tell Alina’s parents that the Alina had decided to somehow marry Rachel and build a life together. However, as she relates, Rachel isn’t sure if Alina’s parents would accept that their daughter was in love with a woman.
Rachel meets Lyutsiya Bilyk, a young doctor at Rachel’s hospital. Over lunch, Lyutsiya tells Rachel that her brother Fedir is a game designer in California, and he has a wife and newborn daughter. Before returning to their work, Lyutsiya slyly hints that she knows Rachel is gay. “Don’t worry. I can keep secret,” she says.
Meanwhile, Russian soldiers rape and murder hundreds of Ukrainians outside Kyiv.
Lyutsiya learns that her parents and her younger sister are among the hundreds that Russian soldiers murdered while occupying Bucha. After Lyutsiya stops sobbing on Rachel’s shoulder outside the hospital, she leaves Rachel to go inside for a fresh cup of tea.
Suddenly, without warning, a Russian bomb explodes. Rachel’s blood spills over Alina’s bracelet.
“The easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most people’s minds is to let it go through the medium of an entertainment picture when they do not realize that they are being propagandized.”
Elmer O. Davis, director of the Office of War Information (1942-1945)
When Rachel wakes from her medically-induced 72-hour coma, she learns that she is the most injured of the victims. Once she knows the situation, she returns to using humor to help relieve the strain of working in the hospital during a war.
Rachel is especially irritated that she was given the highest Ukrainian award for civilians, after being bombed: “I literally got a medal for sitting on my ass!” She appreciates the gesture, but she resents that dead and injured Ukrainians are overlooked while she gets undeserved attention, just because she is an American.
Lyutsiya, she learns, has lost one eye and the use of her left hand. Lyutsiya, working under the influence of heavy pain-killers, takes her injuries philosophically: “I was never going to be a surgeon.” As for losing her sight, Lyutsiya insists she needs only one eye to be a doctor.
Lyutsiya informs Rachel that she must return to California to recover. Rachel flirtatiously suggests that Lyutsiya accompany her to visit her brother, but the young doctor insists on doing her duty. However, she promises to visit Rachel when the war is over. Before she leaves Rachel, Lyutsiya breaks hospital rules to give Rachel a forbidden kiss on her lips. Rachel suggests they have started “a beautiful friendship.”
The night before she leaves, Stepan and Milena join Lyutsiya and Rachel at the hospital. Rachel tries to give Stepan and Milena the Hero of Ukraine award, because Alina deserves it more than she does. Her parents refuse, explaining that it symbolizes how much Ukraine wants Rachel to rally American support for Ukraine. Also, after exchanging emails with Rachel’s parents, they promise to meet them after the war.
Finally, Alina’s parents give Rachel a new bracelet, revealing they now accept that their daughter loved her. Stepan confesses that he would not have accepted Alina’s decision, if he had known before, but the war has made him realize that it hating his daughter for who she loves is wrong. Milena thanks Rachel for permitting Alina, in her short life, to know the same love she has for Stepan. Stepan expresses his hope that another woman will fall in love with Rachel.
With Lyutsiya by her side, Rachel agrees with the young doctor: “Love is like magic.”
“We’re in an all-out war – a People’s war – it’s the time to face it. Let’s make propaganda pictures, but make them good. [Not just] filled with blood and brutality.”
William Wyler, director of Mrs. Miniver (1942)
inspirations
This is not only a war of soldiers in uniform. It is a war of the People. Of all the People. And it must be fought, not only on the battlefields, but in the home, and in the heart of every man, woman, and child who loves Freedom.
We have buried our dead: But we shall not forget them. Instead, they will inspire us with an unbreakable determination to free ourselves and those who come after us from the tyranny and terror that threatened to strike us down.
This is The People’s War!
You are the People!
Fight it, then! — Fight it!
And may God defend the Right!
English actor Fred Wilcoxson, played the vicar in Mrs. Miniver, after his brother died the year before, fighting in the British army. Mrs. Miniver won six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress.
RICK: If it’s 1941 in Casablanca, what time is it in New York?
SAM: My watch stopped.
RICK: I bet they’re asleep in New York. I bet they’re asleep all over America.
Humphrey Bogart as Rick and Dooley Wilson as his friend Sam in Casablanca, winner of the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.
This inspiring speech was translated into French, Italian, and German, and dropped by Allied planes across occupied Europe.