Maciek Hamela’s In the Rearview, a documentary that follows the stories of Ukrainians forced to flee the war, has won Best Film at the 2024 Vilnius Film Festival, THR reported.

The Vilnius jury picked the “touching documentary” for its top prize in a unanimous vote. Filmed in the first days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the film tells stories of trauma, loss and humanity as it follows a small van that crisscrosses the war-torn country, picking up Ukrainians as they are forced to abandon their homes at the front and shuttling them across the battered landscape into exile.

“In the backseat of the vehicle, the refugees talk about what they had to leave behind — their house, their animals, their family and their belief in a peaceful life — filling it with the fate of an entire nation,” the Festival said in its statement. “On its way out, it passes ruins, soldiers and tanks. In its rearview mirror you can see more than just a destroyed country — it also shows destroyed hope. But at least its passengers managed to escape.”