Oscar-winning French film director Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist, The Search, Redoubtable) will publish a book about the Russo-Ukrainian war and its defenders in February in France.

Source : Hazanavicius in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.Kultura (Culture) 

Quote : "The next thing I did was a book. Last year I visited the contact line in Ukraine, and I wrote a book about Ukrainian defenders with my own drawings. It will be released in February."

One of Hazanavicius’ meetings with the defenders.

Photo: United24

Details : Hazanavicius, whose new animated film about World War II, The Most Precious of Cargoes, will be released in Ukraine on 30 January, said that he has been fond of drawing since he was 10 years old. So he used his old hobby both in his work on the new film and to illustrate what he saw in Ukraine.

Hazanavicius also added that his book about Ukrainian defenders would be presented in Ukraine and that all the proceeds from its sale would be used to help Ukrainians.

How Hazanavicius supports Ukraine

Michel Hazanavicius has visited Ukraine several times since Russia's full-scale invasion began. He started helping to raise funds for the country's reconstruction and became an ambassador for the Ukrainian fundraising platform United24.

Hazanavicius at the Kyiv railway station.

Photo: United24

He visited the town of Irpin in Kyiv Oblast, which was destroyed by the Russians in the spring of 2022, the front line, and the city of Kovel in Volyn Oblast, where his grandmother Leia Verba was born.

"Every Ukrainian is a hero and deserves to have a book or a film made about them," Hazanavicius said in an interview with Le Figaro after his visit to Ukraine.

Hazanavicius in Kovel.

Photo: Kostiantyn Liberov and Vlada Liberova 

In the summer of 2023, Hazanavicius organised a charity auction with personal belongings of world-famous stars, at which he raised €125,000. He later donated the money to reconstruct the hospital in Izium, Kharkiv Oblast. Hazanavicius also raised funds to reconstruct a damaged house on Davydchuka Street in Irpin.

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