In February 2022, documentary filmmaker Alisa Kovalenko decides to fulfil a promise to herself and voluntarily enlists in the Ukrainian Army. She says goodbye to her five-year-old son Theo and heads to the front. This film should never have had to be created, but it was, in order to preserve proof of a mother’s never-ending love for her child in the face of the horrors and dangers of war.

In an intimate video diary and poetic letters to Theo as a future adult, Kovalenko captures the devastating reality of the war in her film and reflects on her choice to join the army. The film portrays the chaos of destruction, the friendly relationships between fellow soldiers and the bond with loved ones across the divide. My Dear Theo is at the same time a testament to a mother’s love and a war film, in which the director’s personal journey is intertwined with a broader message about the need to fight so that future generations will have the chance to live in peace.

In Ukrainian with subtitles in Latvian and English.

More than 60,000 women serve in the Ukrainian Army, some 7% of soldiers. In February 2025, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence reported that one-fifth of applications received in recruitment centres are from women. In Latvia, the percentage of women in the armed forces is 18%, one of the highest numbers among NATO member states.