Call Sign Valhalla – A film by Pierre de Mûelenaere

Best Documentary Award
The North Film Festival 2024 (Stockholm)

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which began in 2014. The ongoing war is documented on the Telegram network by soldiers of both armies. Call Sign Valhalla is a fiction created from thousands of these videos that takes you straight to the front lines alongside soldiers fighting to protect their land, homes and loved-ones. It is an exclusive, raw and unfiltred look at the realities of modern warfare, from which no one returns unscathed.

“In a world of go-pro cameras, weaponized commercial drones, email services like Telegram and wireless internet, what was once science fiction has now become reality. Battlefield images are widely available, often accompanied by music added by the soldiers. As citizens, should we confront these images? As artists, what can we make of these testimonies? Through the war film genre, I decided to present a vision of real war, as a way of sharing the terrible experience of the soldiers who take part in it and the populations who suffer from it.” Pierre de Mûelenaere