The documentary Malanka and Christmas captures the celebration of Malanka just a month before the full-scale Russian invasion and the first Christmas in the newly de-occupied territories of Ukraine’s Slobozhanshchyna and Donechchyna. 

Dmytro Mazuriak is a Ukrainian musician and sopilka player with the band Kazka, who devoted 15 years to preserving the Malanka tradition in his home village of Ispas, Bukovyna. A craftsman of traditional Hutsul instruments, Dmytro returns from Kyiv every year to organise the Malanka festival in his community. Just a month after his last 2022 festival, a full-scale invasion began. By the end of 2022, Ukrainian forces had liberated much of Slobozhanshchyna and Donechchyna, though relentless shelling made life in these areas a daily struggle, especially in winter. To show solidarity and revive ancient Ukrainian traditions in these de-occupied areas, young people from across Ukraine came together to perform nativity scenes and bring hope to the east.

The film tells the real stories of ordinary railway workers who, from the very first days of the full-scale invasion, saved the lives of millions of Ukrainians, sometimes at the cost of their own. Under fire, they created artificial train ascents to prevent the enemy from besieging the capital of Ukraine, carried out operations to avert a technological disaster, and continued to manage train movements while the windows at the stations were being pierced by enemy bullets...

In the film, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Hollywood actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom, and renowned footballer and United24 ambassador Andriy Shevchenko share their impressions of the Ukrainian railway workers.

"Train to Life" is a story of struggle, dedication, and heroism of Ukrainian railway workers that the world has never seen before.