ROCHESTER — Rochester native Ben Tiede skipped his college graduation so he could travel to Ukraine to help create a documentary about the war in Ukraine.
Tiede, 25, became part of a small film crew that traveled from one end of the country to the other. It quickly became apparent the project’s original goal — creating footage for a short video about the war in Ukraine — would not do.
Within a day of arriving in Ukraine and beginning filming, they realized a short film would be inadequate to the task: To document the lives of everyday Ukrainians and the day-to-day, behind-the-lines reality of living under the constant threat of missile and drone attack. The stories were too compelling.
The 90-minute documentary, called “Testament,” has won two awards so far, including best documentary at Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis.
The film was co-produced by Josh Tokar, foreign projects coordinator for READ ministries and co-produced by Tiede. The film is subtitled in English.
Contributed / Testament film
Tiede said the Ukrainians have learned to display an eerie nonchalance to the terror-filled possibilities in their lives. They don’t run for cover when air raid sirens blare. If they are walking in the park when they scream, they keep on walking. Seeing a missile or plane overhead is a different matter. That’s when terror strikes.
“There’s this constant level of stress that weighs on you,” Tiede said. “If you’re in Minneapolis and you hear an airplane, you’re like, ‘Oh, (Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport) is nearby.’ But you hear an airplane in Ukraine, everyone freezes and tries to make out the identity of the plane, whether it’s Russian or Ukrainian. The pressure is high.”
Tiede said the film crew traveled twice to Ukraine in 2023 to work on the documentary. The first time in the country, he was able to operate fairly normally. But on the second trip, the pressure began to take its toll, and he started to have panic attacks.
The film documents the stories of Ukrainians behind the front lines in its war with Russia, which launched an invasion against its Central European neighbor four years ago: A grieving woman who lost her 10-year-old daughter and husband in a missile strike on their home. A chaplain who travels to the front lines to succor soldiers through prayer and food gifts.
The film crew’s first interview involved a Ukrainian soldier and his wife. The crew didn’t learn until after the interview that the soldier had just returned from the front lines and been reunited with his wife. Such was the hospitality displayed by their hosts.
“They were taking care of us and trying to make sure that we were feeling welcomed in their home. They didn’t tell us, ‘Oh, yeah, we were just reunited,’” Tiede said.
Tiede, who was raised and home-schooled in Rochester, sees the hand of God in his decision to go to Ukraine. Tiede is a film major. Weeks before he was set to graduate from Taylor University, a Christian college in Upland, Indiana, his class featured a guest speaker, Josh Tokar, a missionary who has a home in Ukraine.
Contributed / Testament film
The two met after class and Tokar told Tiede about his intention to hire people for a media-gathering trip to Ukraine. But somehow their wires got crossed. Tiede thought Tokar was trying to convince him to go to Ukraine. And Tokar thought that Tiede was trying to convince him that he should go.
At his next class, Tiede was asked to read a Biblical verse to the class. It was a passage from Isaiah. To Tiede, the message couldn’t have been clearer.
“I’ve summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.”
“I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I guess I’m going to war,’” Tiede said.
Tiede said the documentary is basically a plea for people not to forget the Ukrianians. The people are “a lot like us than you would ever imagine,” he said. The country is the size of Texas, but “even more full.”
“The culture is so rich, and the people are so loving,” Tiede said. “These are women and children and families being split apart, and people are dying everyday. It’s just to remind people that they exist and they want to exist, and they’ve always wanted to exist as a Ukrainian country.
“The Ukrainian language doesn’t come from the same place as the Russian language. It’s a completely different culture and so it’s a lie to say that Russia has right over the identity or the land that is Ukraine.”
