Meduza Review: A Misleading Ukrainian War Documentary – Spoiler Free

Documentary: Meduza (2025)
Directed by: Roc Morin
Starring: Pavlo Aldoshyn, Katarina Leonova
Review by: Kirk Dulin
Review Type: SPOILER FREE

I am not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. But…after reviewing my 2025 Letterboxd stats, I decided that 2026 needs a focused attempt at watching documentaries.

Meduza (2025) wasn’t even remotely on my radar of films that needed “watchlisted”. Unfortunately, that was for good reason.

The premise is great:

“When his hometown is invaded, a Ukrainian actor – Pavlo Aldoshyn –who once played a sniper in a movie becomes a real sniper on the front line. Meduza follows Ukrainian artist-turned-sniper Pavlo Aldoshyn from the first days of the war in 2022.”

PAUSE. This is – presumably – a documentary about an actor who was studying to play a sniper. He was so engrossed in his study for the film, that he was ready to protect his country. That’s dedication. That’s compassionate. That’s an outstanding empathetic human story.

But that’s not the focus of this film. The extended synopsis continues:

“Throughout the film, Pavlo’s inner life connects to a range of stories around the globe, including a Japanese widower searching the ocean for his wife, and an Amazonian tribesman describing the loss of a mythical ladder connecting earth and sky”

Excuse me…what?

Fool me once, strike one, fool me twice… strike three

You can argue that I am responsible for not reading the entirety of the synopsis. I would argue that I didn’t want to be spoiled on the entire movie. Similar to watching a movie trailer that shows EVERYTHING that will occur, I would rather press play and get sucked into the story that this team painstakingly strung together.

Like the second half of the synopsis reads, we pivot away from our sniper’s story – Pavlo – and the director begins to philosophically guess how humans are related to jellyfish and how jellyfish are eternal.

When this divergence from the main story begins (in the first 25 minutes), I audibly said – “that’s a weird choice for a Ukrainian war doc”. Followed by, “certainly we will just talk about this actor-turned-sniper for the remaining duration of the film” (ok, I didn’t say the second part out loud).

And then it kept happening. In fact, once the director established the first pivot away from Ukraine, he increasingly abandoned his main subject and the allotted time for the non sequitur segment.

I Can’t Be the Only One

As an actor myself, I’ve spent countless hours training for a specific skill for a role in the past. This instantly connected me to this story about Pavlo. I imagined him being on a film set one day and on the front lines the next. I imagined seeing Pavlo recite the lines from his sniper movie or even equate a famous playwright’s quote to the anguish and terror of war. The story of a man, training to pretend to be a soldier, then becoming one because of his training to pretend is absolutely FASCINATING.

Instead, I guesstimate that Pavlo’s screen time is diminished to 18 whole minutes in the full 90 minute runtime. Director Roc Morin, you can either make a Ukrainian War Documentary or a “everything in life is connected” documentary…but not both. Not when your main subject has enough of a story to tell already.

Despite my poor first documentary selection, I promise to keep trying. But the road seems bleak. Recommendations welcome.

Score: 2.0/10 kernels
Review by: Kirk Dulin

Meduza is available to rent or purchase on-demand beginning February 20, 2026.