‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ Filmmakers On Humanizing The Realities Of War Between Russia & Ukraine

In the game of war, there are no winners, no losers, only casualties. Both unsettling and tender is Franz Böhm’s BAFTA-winning short film Rock, Paper, Scissors, which follows the true story of Ivan (Oleksandr Rudynskyi) as he helps his father (Sergey Kalantay) run a makeshift hospital near the frontline of the Russia-Ukraine war. When Russian aircraft carrier bombs thwart their plans to seek a more undisturbed area, Russian soldiers start to seek out their bunker. To keep the most vulnerable safe, Ivan has to decide to confront the soldiers or deceive them at the potential cost of his life. 

The 20-minute short film, produced by Hayder Rothschild Hoozeer and backed by the National Film and Television School, in addition to winning Best Student Film and the Best Short Film Grand Prize at HollyShorts London, has also landed the 2026 Oscars shortlist. 

Below, Hoozeer and Böhm talk to Deadline about the emotional vulnerabilities and dangers of war.

DEADLINE: How did your meeting with Ivan inform Rock, Paper, Scissors? 

FRANZ BÖHM: I met Ivan during his time in the U.K. We met by coincidence and created a wonderful friendship. At some point, I asked about a scar he had on his leg, and he told me this incredible story about the impossible decisions he had to make during the war [in Ukraine]. I was very impressed by his moral courage and bravery, and very impressed by how, over the span of a day, he was forced to grow up and lose any sense of teenage freedom he might’ve had. He volunteered afterwards to serve in the Ukrainian military, but we were able to write a screenplay together, and I also got his advice on location scouting. It was a wonderful collaboration. 

DEADLINE: Oleksandr Rudynskyi plays Ivan. Talk about that collaboration between you two. 

BÖHM: Collaborating with Oleksandr was an enormous honor and pleasure. He’s incredibly talented, experienced and a wonderful actor. We worked really hard to get him in Ukraine; he is a very well-known actor, and when Ivan learned that Oleksandr was going to play him, that was a huge surprise. 

HAYDER HOOZEER: I think it’s also worth mentioning that during the time of the production itself, when we were shooting the film and even pre-production, the real Ivan was in Ukraine at the frontline. So, the events the story is telling you are happening in real time for many other Ukrainians. Even up until this point, the conflict is still ongoing at the frontline in Ukraine. Ivan also passed before seeing the complete version of this film. We had an alternative ending that we had intended to do, but I’m sure people will understand this: you never really meet someone knowing that they are going to die [relatively soon]. 

That’s the weight we’ve carried throughout everything to this point: Ivan was alive whilst we were making this film, and then he was killed. There isn’t anything that prepares you for that reality, especially in filmmaking. When he passed, we cut out parts of that other ending because ethically and morally it didn’t feel right to continue his story in the direction that we were going to do as a result of honoring his death. 

DEADLINE: Because this situation is still ongoing, was there fear in covering this topic? 

HOOZEER: Well, we now have the support from the Office of the President of Ukraine – I had gone over to Ukraine during active bombardment twice in 2025. What was so heartbreaking and inspiring was the quiet bravery and resilience of the people in Ukraine. It was really important for us to ensure this story was as authentic as possible and was supported by that community. We brought over Ukrainian actors from Germany. We worked with the Ministry of Culture to bring over Oleksandr to be able to shoot in the U.K., and even that had its own level of complications because as soon as he arrived, his best friend was killed in Ukraine. Franz and I had a conversation about how we should postpone the shoot because his family and friends were far more important than the film we were making. We spoke to Oleksandr about this, but he said he felt a stronger drive to portray Ivan in this film because he understood the mission we were trying to achieve. 

As filmmakers, we understand the impact of storytelling; we understand that through the power of filmmaking, we can help people connect with different themes and realities affecting people far away and, subsequently, those who are really close. 

BÖHM: Our team and our cast members transformed fear into urgency. We had a high level of commitment to authenticity across all disciplines, sound design, music, production design and the performances themselves. Many thoughts went into every detail of this film. 

DEADLINE: Why was the handheld camera style the most effective way to tell this story for you?

BÖHM: We had the real pleasure of working with an extremely talented and international head of departments on this project. And we had enough time to prepare for the shoot and to figure out the audiovisual language and the overall design of the project. This was done through extensive testing, location scouting, and meetings. We also watched a lot of films [for inspiration]. So, the choice to use the handheld style was a result of those meetings. We wanted to deploy that specific style because the audience is never smarter than Ivan, our main character, and we wanted to be as close to him as possible throughout the whole film. We incorporated that into the score and sound design as well to resemble what Ivan is feeling during certain moments. For example, the moment when he shoots himself in the leg, you’re getting [to see] this incredible pain, and oftentimes [when] people have [severe injuries] like this, there’s a lot of difficulty [in trying to communicate] because all you can hear is your blood pumping through your veins so loudly. So, we tried to recreate that with both the sound design and score. 

DEADLINE: Talk about the importance of the title Rock, Paper, Scissors. Why did this fit the story you are telling? 

HOOZEER: There are a couple of reasons why the title is important. Rock, Paper, Scissors is fundamentally a children’s game. There’s an innocence to it. It’s the idea that, over the course of this film, the reality mirrors how we see Ivan lose his innocence. The game also mirrors war in the sense that there aren’t really any real winners, just like there are no real winners in Rock, Paper, Scissors. With the film focusing on the civilian point of view, when Ivan is out in the world, we can hear those jets flying over. But in that situation, you don’t know if they’re friendly or if they’re foes. This could be the last time you step outside. Survival in war is a game of luck and a game of chance. And it really felt like, especially with the story of Ivan itself, almost a coming-of-age story for Ivan. It’s a war thriller.

BÖHM: The film is not really about war in the first place. It’s about people and how they react and have to behave when the systems around them, created to protect them, just collapse. And I think that’s what Rock, Paper, Scissors is trying to tell through Ivan’s harrowing, brutal story.

DEADLINE: You’ve won the BAFTA and scooped up awards from various international festivals and now have landed the Oscars shortlist. As a producer, what have you noticed about the different reactions to the regions that you’ve played this in? 

HOOZEER: This story humanizes the realities of war. Globally, we’ve had quite a successful festival run. We’ve had the film show in New Zealand, LA, across the U.S., the U.K., in Europe, even in Africa and Mauritius. We’ve had quite a lot of international response to the film, and I think it’s less about the glorification of heroism. The character is not a Hollywood hero. The idea is that he’s a civilian, he’s a human. I think the film explores choices made under pressure, the drive to save everyone without leaving anyone behind, the risk for the greater good, resilience when everything crumbles and the steadfast defense of what we hold dear. These themes unfold with deliberate intensity, and that’s been universal everywhere we’ve taken this film. 

DEADLINE: Franz, you’re still in your mid-20s. Between this and your previous documentary, Dear Future Children, there seems to be a desire to tell stories about people living under oppressive regimes. Don’t you just want to be a guy in his 20s? These are some complex topics. 

BÖHM: My connection to film was created when I was still quite young. I lost my father when I was 11, and that was a very difficult time for my mother and I. During that time, I found a personal escape in watching films, especially adventurous ones set in other countries or those in which the lead characters had to transform themselves. I remember being quite young and getting fascinated when I researched what all the different credits on a film meant, like what a DoP or a producer does. 

I was a 14-year-old living in South Germany when I stepped onto my first film set as a runner and immediately fell in love with the process of making films, which, to this day, I think is deeply magical and amazing. I know I have experienced it firsthand how much films can help people. Obviously, when I say ‘help people,’ it sounds like a simple phrase, but I think it means helping people understand one another. Film helps us understand a subjective experience that somebody else might have. For example, in Germany, it helped understand the devastation of the Holocaust and all its different factions and the consequences massively. 

Cinema often helps us zoom in on a conflict, tragedy, or even a positive moment in a particular story, experience, or character to share the value of that experience. That’s what cinema is about to me. I’m very grateful that, as a young boy with no prior connection to the industry – I have no family members who work in the media industry – I was able to get into the industry this way. I’m grateful for the many collaborators I’ve had on this journey, and I’m looking forward to many more that I’ll hopefully meet in the future. I’m grateful I was able to study at the National Film and Television School, a place that was always a dream for me. I was able to meet so many incredible fellow students, many of whom helped me create Rock, Paper, Scissors. And in today’s world, there are so many conflicts brewing alongside new political movements and emerging problems. If you look at cinema over the last few years, I would say films have done an excellent job of helping us as a society debate these problems, and that’s what I’m really excited and passionate about. 

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]