Rolling with the White Knight

In 2022, Fisher Creative traveled to Ukraine for multiple production trips while working on HUMANΨUNITY, a documentary examining the heroic and impactful stories of the volunteers supporting Ukraine's defense against Russia’s unprovoked invasion.

As the war continues to drag on with no end in sight, our hearts go out to a people and country that forever changed us all. One thing in particular that captured our admiration is the unflappable Ukrainian spirit and its tendency to persevere and find solutions in even the most challenging situations.

As a nod to that badass Ukrainian spirit, here's a light-hearted, behind-the-scenes story from one of our trips that addresses the question:

How do you cross an international border into a war-torn country with a vehicle you just discovered has a dying clutch?

The HUMANΨUNITY production vehicle was an old, used Ford Transit from the UK (steering wheel on right side) that had previously been converted into a camper van. It was affectionately called the “White Knight.”

At least back in mid-to-late 2022, the line of trucks waiting to cross the Poland-Ukraine border started about 10 miles from the border. It was around this time during the production team’s second trip that they realized the White Knight was exhibiting mechanical difficulties. The manual transmission’s clutch was going out.

A dying clutch on a vehicle approaching the international border of a worn-torn country raises various concerns, from how to get help to the impact on a tight production schedule to the implications of a broken-down vehicle leading to a curfew violation as a foreigner.

The good news for us was that a vehicle remains somewhat drivable without a clutch as long as it’s in motion. We had people in Lviv who could help if only we could 1) get the vehicle across the border and 2) make it the remaining 40 miles to Lviv without a breakdown.

We knew getting across the border would require a lot of stopping and starting, and all this stopping and starting could put an end to whatever breaths remained in the clutch and strand us somewhere short of Lviv. 

To preserve the clutch's remaining breaths, we made the decision that we wouldn't drive the White Knight over the border - we would push it. 

In quite a few situations in life, four guys pushing a van down a road with a fifth guy steering will lead to questions from bystanders: What are you doing? Do you need help? Do you really think you can get away with nonchalantly pushing a van across an international border where one of the two countries is at war?

The Poland-Ukraine border - at least on this particular evening - was not one of those situations. One Polish border patrol officer did ask us if we were out of fuel. When we said "no," he nodded and went back to what he was doing. And so we pushed the White Knight across the border into Ukraine without any additional challenges.

When you have a broken or dying clutch, one of the biggest problems is starting from a dead stop. If you can get the vehicle going, then you can pop it into a higher gear and you're on your way. That's exactly what we did. Four of us pushed the van up to the speed of a solid jog, the person behind the wheel popped it into second gear, and then we all ran to catch up and jump into the moving vehicle, slamming the doors behind us. 

However, we still had about 40 miles to go to get to our hotel in Lviv with the matter still before us of our approach toward a major city likely to involve all sorts of stop signs and stoplights.

On our approach to Lviv, we reached out to a resourceful and unflappable journalist named Vira Labych who had been our on-the-ground guide, liaison, translator, coordinator, and general helper since our first production trip. We wanted to see if she could help us find a mechanic late on a Friday night. It took her 18 phone calls, but she was successful in finding someone who could meet us at the hotel that evening to tow the van and start work fixing it in the morning.

We drove the 40 miles from the border to Lviv in third gear along with the hope that the need to stop would be minimal to none. Our luck mostly held out. The entrance to a roundabout was the only complete stop required, but there in the middle of a very busy roundabout in central Lviv, four guys pushed a van to the point of a solid jog, the White Knight was put into gear, and the rest of us all ran to catch up, jump in, and slam the doors behind us.

We arrived at our hotel and were fortunate to get the White Knight towed just 30 minutes before a strictly enforced curfew, and the White Knight lived to fight the White Knight fight for another day! 

Things have a tendency to work out in Ukraine even if it seems uncertain right up until the last minute. And that's why we know that Ukraine will prevail, win this war, and successfully defend democracy for itself – and for the world.

Sláva Ukrayíni!

While HUMANΨUNITY hasn't yet been completed, you can check out the trailer below or learn more about the film here.