“The Last Message”: personal loss, Ukrainian resistance, and the world’s responsibility.
The team behind the Ukrainian feature-length documentary The Last Message / «Останнє повідомлення» held a press conference marking the film’s official theatrical premiere in Ukraine.
Directed by Andrii Voloshyn and Oleksii Liebiediev, the film follows American-Ukrainian singer and activist Kelsie Kimberlin, who travels from Washington to Ukraine after the death of her 21-year-old cousin, Andrii Rachok. Andrii volunteered for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and was killed on 22 February 2024 during the battles for Avdiivka.
Through this family story, the film asks two questions that remain politically and morally urgent:
- why, despite international assistance, Ukraine still needs weapons and funding;
- and why Ukrainians continue to fight despite external calls for “peace” at any cost.
The answers do not come through abstract statements. They unfold along the heroine’s journey near the front line – from Mykolaiv and Kherson to Sviatohirsk and Izium – and through the people for whom the war is a matter of existence, freedom, and home.
The film does not end with a private reckoning with loss. That loss is transformed into an advocacy campaign for justice, including an international lawsuit against Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
What we discussed
- the concept of the film and the shoot in Ukraine and the United States, completed without state or grant funding;
- how to show the war to an audience that still encounters it mainly through news coverage, aid figures, and political debate;
- the score by Yurii Shepeta and original songs by Kelsie Kimberlin;
- the world premiere in New York, the festival run, and more than 40 awards;
- the Ukrainian theatrical release from 24 September 2026 in the Oskar cinema chain in Kyiv, a special screening at America House Lviv on 29 September, and the start of the U.S. theatrical run on 9 October in Los Angeles;
- the film’s independent submissions to the 99th Academy Awards in Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Score.
Speakers
Director Oleksii Liebiediev, the film’s protagonist Kelsie Kimberlin, and her father, American activist Brett Kimberlin, producer Andrii Samerkhanov. Director Andrii Voloshyn and screenwriter Marharyta Vlasova (via Zoom), and composer Yurii Shepeta.
The Last Message is not only a record of war. It is a conversation about what we do when war takes someone we love – and what it means to stand with those who continue to fight.
We grateful to the UA Crisis media center for the best independent location in Kyiv to organise this event.
Tags: the last message
