Tonight in Kamloops: The Last Human in the Universe Speaks Ukrainian
U Are the Universe (Ти — Космос)
Saturday, August 8 at 7:00 pm
Paramount Theatre, 503 Victoria St
CINEMA PASSPORT 
UKRAINE, presented by the Kamloops Film Society in partnership with the Simya Ukrainian Society. Thank you Michelle, for sharing information.
Earth is gone. Andriy Melnyk, a Ukrainian space trucker hauling nuclear waste out to Jupiter’s moon Callisto, watches the flash from behind a moon and understands that he is the only human being left. His only company is Maxim, a shipboard robot with an endless supply of jokes. Then a signal arrives from Catherine, a French woman on a station near Saturn. Every exchange takes three hours to cross the distance. Andriy points his ship toward her anyway.
Why this film, and why now.
Pavlo Ostrikov carried this story for more than a decade. He first staged it as a short play in 2011 while studying law in Kyiv, wrote the first screenplay draft in 2015, and spent years hunting for money. The first block of filming wrapped in early January 2022. Six weeks later Russia invaded, the French lead actress could no longer travel to Kyiv, and the production stopped. It resumed in the autumn of 2022. Cast and crew served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the making of it: lead actor Volodymyr Kravchuk enlisted in the first months and was brought back to Kyiv for the final shoot. The film’s special effects specialist, Oleksandr Suvorov, was killed at the front.
Every frame of this thing was made by people who kept working while their country was under fire. One Ukrainian critic called it the first romantic tragicomedy of the full-scale war, a film about how people keep joking, keep working, and still go out on a date the morning after a missile strike.
And it is a great film on its own terms. Made on roughly €800,000, a fraction of any normal science fiction budget. Premiered in competition at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024. More than thirty awards since, including the Golden Octopus and the Silver Méliès at Strasbourg, the top prize at the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, and the Grand Prix at the Odesa International Film Festival. When it finally opened in Ukraine in November 2025 it drew over 326,000 viewers and more than 60 million hryvnia at the box office. In Ukrainian and French with English subtitles.
Listen for the soundtrack: Ukrainian pop from the 1970s and 80s, including Nazariy Yaremchuk with Smerichka. It is a Ukrainian sound carried out into deep space.
Come early. The evening starts before the lights go down.
Visit the Sim’ya Ukrainian Society cultural table before the film and during intermission: traditional clothing, handcrafted items, historical displays, and cultural artifacts, with volunteers ready to share stories and tell you about Ukrainian heritage and local programs. Bring your questions.
Collect your stamp! Cinema Passport is your wallet-sized ticket around the world, one film at a time. Already have yours? Get it stamped at showtime. Need one? Pick it up from our Front of House staff when you arrive. One stamp per film title.
Kamloops, let us fill that theatre. Bring a friend, bring your neighbour, bring the person who has never seen a Ukrainian film in their life. 7:00 pm, the Paramount.
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