This film is being promoted as Ukraine’s version of Saving Private Ryan, updated for the age of drones.
The war movie Killhouse is an action thriller that highlights the latest battlefield technology. Released this week, it features cameos from well-known Ukrainian figures, including the country’s former military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov. One person who doesn’t appear is Donald Trump. The film is conveniently set in 2024, when Washington and Kyiv were still allies.
Director Liubomyr Levytskyi said he was inspired by a true story: a couple trying to rescue relatives came under Russian attack. The man was badly wounded. A nearby Ukrainian military unit sent a drone carrying a piece of paper that read: “Follow me.” The woman followed the drone, dodging mines and bullets. Russian soldiers threw her unconscious husband into a trench. Incredibly, he survived.
“A friend of mine, a journalist, called and said, ‘Liubomyr, I’ve got this story – it’ll give you goosebumps,'” Levytskyi said. He added, “I thought, ‘Well, of course it will. I’ve heard so many stories like this already.’ It’s hard to impress me with a story. Then I saw footage of the rescue operation. I couldn’t believe it was real.”
The director made a 30-minute documentary called Follow Me, which he said got a lot of attention. “I realized this story really resonates with people. Drones are something new. And I thought, this story needs to be turned into a film.”
The resulting two-and-a-half-hour movie was shot last year in the Kyiv region. Levytskyi said he took some creative liberties with the plot, adding a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by Russians. Scenes take place in the White House situation room, in occupied eastern Ukraine, and in a farmhouse in a deadly gray zone. There’s also a shootout and a car chase in downtown Kyiv.
The film shows people caught up in the race for technological superiority on the Ukrainian battlefield.
American journalist Audrey MacAlpine – playing a version of herself – said filming had to stop several times. “There were air raid alerts. We had to hide. It was a war within a war,” she said. Actor Denis Kapustin said some cast members would nap in a bomb shelter, waiting for the threat to pass. On the blurring of fiction and reality, he said, “The movie is totally meta and postmodern.”
Kapustin said Killhouse captures the complex, multi-layered nature of modern warfare. “It’s a race for technological superiority,” he added. Soldiers acted alongside professional actors, with pyrotechnics used to simulate explosions. After filming ended, Kapustin joined the real-life unit his character serves in – the 3rd Assault Brigade, part of the 3rd Army Corps.
He is now a drone operator. In one scene, a group of Ukrainian special forces soldiers clear a building, shooting dead many Russians. Kapustin acknowledged that much of the war is fought from a distance along the frontline, but said street-to-street fighting still happens in shattered eastern towns like Vovchansk. “It’s realistic. The goal is not to lose people,” he said.
At the heart of the story is the use of a military drone to help a civilian escape the battlefield.
Ukrainian audiences have reacted positively. “It’s interesting to see people from the news, like Budanov, on screen,” said Mariia Hlazunova, who worked for the Dovzhenko Centre, Ukraine’s film archive, at this week’s Kyiv premiere. She added, “It’s like fiction mixed with fact. The film is super-patriotic, which is how it should be. There are a few cheesy moments, but overall it does a really good job.”
Ukraine’s two main intelligence agencies – the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) – were involved in the production. They provided US HuThe film features Mvee and MaxxPro vehicles, along with a Black Hawk helicopter. It highlights Ukraine’s latest homemade drones, including a catapult-launched reconnaissance model called the Shark. The filmmakers say this is the first movie in cinema history to use footage captured by real combat drones. They are working on an English-language version for US distributors and are considering a four-episode version for streaming platforms like Netflix. Killhouse was made without government support and had a budget of $1.1 million.
Like Saving Private Ryan, the story centers on a moral question: is it worth risking many lives to save one person—in this case, a stolen child? According to Ukraine’s army media unit, Killhouse shows “something the world often misses in the daily flood of frontline updates.” It adds, “Ukrainian soldiers are not just fighting to hold territory. They are crossing into grey zones to bring civilians home.”
Levytskyi suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin badly underestimated Ukraine’s resilience and will to survive when he launched his full-scale invasion in 2022, thinking his forces could overwhelm Kyiv in a few days. More than four years later, the war continues. “The enemy is very afraid when Ukrainians are united. That is a fact,” the director said.
Additional reporting by Jake Jacobs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs for Rhino a Ukrainian action thriller set in the chaotic 1990s often promoted as a gritty Tarantinoesque crime saga
Beginner Questions
1 What is Rhino about
Its a violent fastpaced story about a young man named Rhino who rises through the criminal underworld in postSoviet Ukraine during the lawless 1990s Its a raw look at loyalty betrayal and the cost of power
2 Is this movie based on a true story
No its a fictional story But the director Oleg Sentsov drew heavily on reallife stories and the brutal atmosphere of Ukraine in the 1990s to make it feel authentic
3 Is it in Ukrainian or Russian
The film is primarily in Ukrainian and Russian with English subtitles available on most streaming platforms
4 Is the movie very violent
Yes Its an unflinching action thriller with graphic violence including shootings beatings and torture Its not for the faint of heart
5 Who directed Rhino and why is that important
The director is Oleg Sentsov a Ukrainian filmmaker who was imprisoned by Russia for five years His personal story of resistance adds a powerful realworld weight to the films themes of survival and brutality
Intermediate Questions
6 What makes Rhino different from other gangster movies
Unlike flashy crime epics Rhino is gritty lowbudget and feels almost like a documentary It focuses on the mundane ugly reality of crimedirt sweat and desperationrather than glamour
7 Who is the main character and what is his arc
The main character is a young man nicknamed Rhino He starts as a reckless violent enforcer but slowly realizes that the family of the mob is hollow leading him to question his own humanity
8 What is the tone of the movie
The tone is dark tense and melancholic There are moments of dark humor but its mostly a bleak serious drama about a man trapped in a cycle of violence
