Olias Barco knows kyiv well, where his in-laws live and where he has produced numerous films, including The Last Mercenary, with Jean-Claude Van Damme. It was therefore obvious to go there to fight alongside the Ukrainian army.
“The first few weeks, I was mainly active in Irpin and the surrounding area,” he told our colleagues from the Nieuwsblad. He explains that he is part of a unit of the Ukrainian army responsible for evacuating and taking care of civilians in the area.
“The horror I saw is indescribable. I saw soldiers and civilians die before my eyes. I saw severed limbs. Dead children,” he testifies. “You don’t even see such images in the worst horror movies. In this period, the director should be in Cannes, in the middle of the festival. But not this year. “My place is here, in the trenches,” he concludes.