Driving Lessons is truly a brilliant film conveying a message of hope and perseverance in the face of absurdity and evil. Taking a universal rite of passage, learning to drive, and using it as a vehicle to highlight the raw tragedy of occupied Ukraine is an incredible choice by director Anastasiya Gruba.

Throughout the drive, displays of a typical father-daughter relationship are evident– topics as mundane as what to have for dinner creating the dialogue. The father, played stoically by Kostyantyn Danylyuk, presents the usual stresses of a parent teaching their child to drive. His responses and directions are short, stern yet supportive, and occasionally condescending. His daughter, portrayed in a strong yet soft manner by Angelina Samchyk, takes each of these responses with the expected slightly sassy retorts of a teenager who is anxiously learning a new ability. These performances, accompanied by the singular 2-Shot from the backseat that remains the staple camera position for most of the film, lure the audience into a sense of serene and understood normalcy.

This all changes when harsh reality strikes at a checkpoint, unknowingly lying in the path of the two characters. As they turn a corner, their car is stopped and soldiers approach. After presenting their documentation, Danylyuk is escorted from the car and promptly issued a summons. What once seemed like an all too familiar experience is now rocked on its foundation, shining a stark, painful light on the reality too many are living. The dynamic between father and daughter has also changed.

Now, yet another worldly shared journey butts its head, only the stakes are far higher– telling your parents what you’d like to do with your life. Upon receiving the summons, Danylyuk calls for help from an unknown friend, seemingly trying to find ways out of serving. His daughter quietly listens before attempting to justify the potential rewarding nature of being on the front line. Her motivations are unclear, though taken as almost insulting by her father who believes she is trying to say she’d like him to go. This conversation is a pivotal and ingenious instrument of contrast, further making the divide between what most may perceive as an average reality and the weight of Ukraine's reality, even more clear.

To add another layer of tension, and yet another routine happening in one’s pursuit of learning to drive, Samchyk nearly gets into an accident due to a distracted driver while her father is making his call. This is another astute choice by Gruba, curating an atmosphere of anxiety, guilt and surprise. As the drive continues, there is stillness in the air separating the characters though they are only two feet from each other. Danylyuk, driven by the passion of his late wife to protect their daughter and give her the best life she can possibly have, is keen on getting her out of the country and somewhere safer. Samchyk, motivated by a will to help as much as she can, previously mentioning a kitchen she volunteers at, is dreaming of ways she can assist in the war.

The sky darkens and the drive comes to an end, silence weighing heavy on father and daughter. A hit of realism is thrown by Samchyk as she tells her father that she has volunteered to assist at the frontline and pleads for his forgiveness before exiting the car, leaving Danylyuk to drive home alone in darkness and quiet. A day that in many other places would have ended with no serious uprooting or revelation, is stamped with a tragic tone of strength in the midst of an even more tragic situation.

Anastasiya Gruba has composed a masterpiece, a slap of reality into the faces of those who refuse to see it, and she did so with an experience so universally known and understood. Driving Lessons is a short film that everyone must watch.

Driving Lessons  will be screening with two other short films at the Fall 2025 New Jersey Film Festival on Friday, September 26. The film will be Online for 24 Hours on this show date beginning at Midnight on this date. Tickets are available for purchase here.

The 44th Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place between September 5-October 10, 2025. The Festival will be a hybrid as we will be presenting it online as well as doing select in-person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VoD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings. Plus, we are very proud to announce that acclaimed band Cold Weather Company will be doing an audio-visual concert on Friday, October 10 at 7PM. Lastly, we will be offering three FREE Filmmaking Workshops! The in-person screenings and the Cold Weather Company concert will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 1PM, 5PM or 7PM on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$120; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program. The Filmmaking Workshops are FREE and open to the public but have limited seating and require advance registration. To register email us at [email protected]

For more info go here: https://newjerseyfilmfestivalfall2025.eventive.org/welcome