One group of evacuees in In the Rearviews (TIFF)

Polish director Maciek Hamela sits in the driver’s seat—in more ways than one—in the making of In the Rearview, which had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. In the week of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the filmmaker was behind the steering wheel as a volunteer transporting displaced refugees and their few belongings, fleeing the frontlines. He drove his van during the day, and the cameramen, of which there were many, took the wheel at night. Many of the treks departed from the eastern territory of Donetsk, occupied by Russia since 2014.

The casual conversations and back and forth interviews between the filmmaker and his passengers offer a needed perspective on the war, apart from the news footage of war trauma, though that is indelibly an undercurrent. Hamela focuses on the civilians, mostly women, children, and older men, offering a complementary counterpoint to the on-the-ground fighting captured in Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days in Mariupol. His riders include a potty-trained cat, a woman from aristocratic lineage, now a self-declared “traveling frog.” According to the film, one million Ukrainians left the country after the first week of fighting.

Though the horror of war hovers in the background, there is a strong sense of hope that, at least for now, Hamela’s passengers will be safe. Despite leaving everything behind, more than one passenger exudes excitement, looking forward to seeing Western Europe—Paris, in particular, for a young woman carrying a surrogate pregnancy. She wants to become a surrogate mother once more to earn enough money to buy a car and open a café back home.

Hamela and his passengers pass by a mountain of incinerated cars, collapsed overpasses, and residential areas. A McDonald’s Golden Arches incongruously hovers above a desolate stretch of highway. A lengthy line of cars forms for gasoline along a highway. In at least one instance, the driver/director hits a dead end: The road in front of him no longer exists—it has been bombed. Though this was filmed in 2022, the footage nevertheless feels up to the minute. More than once, the convoy cannot proceed through a road littered with mines, a weapon that has been one culprit for the Ukrainian forces’ slow counteroffensive this summer.

Some journeys have longer screen time than others. However brief their on-camera presence may be, many of the evacuees make a lasting impression. Here, a little goes a long way. One woman from a besieged Mariupol recounts in an offhand manner a horrific family tragedy, which she has likely repeated dozens of times. As she describes what happened to her mother and father, she’s unaware of how the tragedy is affecting and upsetting a passenger sitting in front of her.

Hamela’s passengers appear to be healthy, at least physically, except for a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who was shot in the leg and stomach by Russians, and needs medical attention outside the country. She (no one is identified by name) has lived in Ukraine for years and considers it “a second homeland.” And like any long-distance trek, there is downtime: One teen continues to text as the vehicle has trouble navigating through mud.

In the Rearview provides a refreshing and candid snapshot of the normal and the horrific. Once it starts, it will overcome any hesitation from war-weary, burned-out audiences.