"Kherson: Human Safari" is a documentary shot during the Russian war of aggression.

It captures the lives of civilians hunted by drones, displaced by war, and bonded by resistance.

This film is a testimony and a call to global conscience.

Kherson: Human Safari is an original documentary film created and produced by Zarina Zabrisky. The film is based entirely on material gathered after September 2024 by a Ukrainian-based team. All footage and interviews are original, with signed release forms and archival licenses. Civilian and military content has been reviewed and cleared by the appropriate Ukrainian press officers.

Any attempt to discredit or suppress this film is being addressed through legal channels.

Kherson: Human Safari tells the story of a city torn—but undefeated—by Russian invasion, occupation, flood, and now, a new war crime: drones hunting civilians in what locals call a “human safari.”

I came to Kherson when it was liberated in November 2022. The joy and defiance I witnessed shook me. I moved there in September 2023, and the city became my life. This film is about the people who live through daily horror but the focus isn’t horror. It is what persists despite it: art, humor, dance, meaning. Khersonians say, “It will get better,” even as drones buzz overhead.

This is not a traditional war documentary. Each chapter—Invasion, Occupation, Flood, and more—opens with a dance sequence, choreographed under fire. The dancer seems symbolic—until her story is revealed. She, too, survived. Her body speaks when words fail.

Our team lived the story we filmed. Our composer was a partisan. Our editor cut footage as Shahed drones flew above. Our DP’s home was seized; his archive destroyed.

Some buildings you see in the dance segments are gone now—hit by airstrikes after filming. The dance became a requiem.

Kherson lives. The city sings, drinks, teaches embroidery underground, and stages plays in bomb shelters. But every day more and more people are killed and injured and streets are ruined.

This film chose me. The war demanded it. If this work helps protect Kherson, I’ve done my job.

All proceeds support civilians and defenders in Kherson.

Zarina Zabrisky - Director, Producer

Zarina Zabrisky is an award-winning author of five books and a U.S. journalist, a war correspondent for Byline Times (UK) and Euromaidan Press (UA). She has contributed to BBC News, CBC Radio, Voice of America, TVP World, The Sunday Post, and more. She co-produced and starred in the documentary Under the Deadly Skies, exposing Russian war crimes. Her literary work has appeared in The Paris Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Longreads, and other publications.

Oleksandr Andrushchenko - Director of Photography

Oleksandr Andrushchenko is a distinguished Ukrainian photojournalist with over 30 years of experience and a staff photojournalist at Vgoru.Kherson. A founder and director of the Kherson School of Photography, he has played a key role in mentoring generations of photographers in southern Ukraine. Andrushchenko documented the Russian occupation from inside the occupied city, continuing his work under extreme conditions.

Artem Tsynskyi - Editor

Artem Tsynskyi is a Ukrainian editor and filmmaker, working as both a news editor and film editor for Suspilne Odesa and previously for the Ukrainian Information Service, one of the country’s leading online platforms. Tsynskyi’s documentary work includes widely viewed projects such as Odesa Is Not a Russian City, Our People, Warriors of the Three Elements, By Will and Iron, and Used Until… The Story of Odesa’s Twin Estuaries.

Jason N. Parkinson - Color Grading & Upscaling

Jason N. Parkinson is a UK-based video journalist with 20 years of experience covering the rise of the far right, the refugee crisis, and conflict in 16 countries, including five assignments in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, a Rory Peck Award finalist for coverage of the Egyptian Revolution and London Riots, and runner-up for Getty Images EMEA News Videographer of the Year 2024.

Yegor Irodov - Sound Engineer

Ukrainian composer and sound designer Yegor Irodov has over 20 years of experience in film and television, with more than 150 credits and 2,000 hours of screen time. Head of Sound at Star Media Group, Irodov is also a juror for the International Emmy Awards, a voting member of the Canadian Academy of Cinema & Television, and a respected figure in international film and music communities.

Heidi Siegmund Cuda - Executive Producer

Heidi Siegmund Cuda is an Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter, bestselling author, and columnist for Byline Supplement. She is co-host of the RADICALIZED Truth Survives podcast, producer/director of award-winning documentaries, and her Bette Dangerous Substack is read in 90 countries.

Oksana Taranenko - Executive Producer

From Greek colonies to Catherine the II’s conquest, from Soviet collectivization to 2022 occupation.