01 — The Photograph
J’entends au loin la réponse des Cosaques
“I Hear From Far Away the Cossacks’ Reply” — Emeric Lhuisset, 2023
In 2023, French visual artist Emeric Lhuisset staged this photograph of Ukrainian soldiers gathered together — laughing, sharing bread, looking out for one another — deliberately restaging the composition of Ilya Repin’s 1880–91 painting Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, a work that became symbolic again during the Maidan uprising.
The original hangs in Russia’s State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg — even though Repin himself was born near Kharkiv, in what is now Ukraine. Lhuisset’s photograph pushes back on that history: since 2022, Ukraine has resisted Russia’s long habit of folding Ukrainian-born artists and Ukrainian heritage into its own canon, a claimed “unity” Vladimir Putin invoked to help justify the invasion.
The title nods to another reply that had already gone viral: the Ukrainian defenders of Snake Island who, in the war’s opening hours, answered a Russian warship’s demand to surrender with a rebuke that instantly became a symbol of national defiance. Emeric has told the fuller story — one that stretches back to 2004 — in a video interview posted on his LinkedIn.
02 — Why It Matters
“Rather than glorifying violence or playing into unconstructive binaries of war and peace, Emeric’s photo concerns itself with the human dimension of conflict, people’s moral determination, and our strength in conviviality.”
— Amber French-Griette, ONM Director
03 — Where Your Money Goes
200 € per print, shipping included
Each print is 200 €, including shipping and handling, and ships from Paris within 8 working days. 500 € of total proceeds go directly to Fewer Words, More Action, a local NGO in Posad Pokrovske, to upgrade their mobile cinema for children:
A new projection screen, enabling parallel sessions for different age groups
~180 €
5 bean bag chairs, for comfortable seating
~150 €
Fuel, to transport equipment and reach villages
~170 €
Every other euro raised supports ONM’s wider Ukraine programmes.
Only 10 posters are available for this edition. Order while supplies last (campaign launch: September 2026).
04 — Why A Mobile Cinema
Saturday-morning cartoons, in a warzone
For many of us, TV cartoons were a formative part of our childhood. Laughing at endless Tom & Jerry 😺🐭 antics… Still, screen time for kids today, in the YouTube era, is generally viewed in a negative light.
But what happens when schools are destroyed in a war you never asked for, and you are taking care of your children 24/7 with little access to the kind of entertainment you so enjoyed when you were little? No sense of normalcy for your children without the Saturday morning cartoons ritual?
Oleh, father of two boys ages 5 and 17, founded the NGO “Fewer Words, More Action” in Posad Pokrovske in April 2024. As a dad, he thought a lot about this very practical and relatable problem when schools and homes in his village in southern Ukraine sustained damage in the full-scale invasion.
“When the full-scale war broke out, I evacuated my family in March 2022, then returned for belongings. That trip became the start of my volunteering. We distributed diapers and fed dogs. Our projects grew in complexity: restoring a destroyed community center for children in Promin… a mobile cinema for children…”
— Oleh, founder of Fewer Words, More Action
05 — In The Field
The mobile cinema, on the road
Tom & Jerry on the big screen
Oleh (left) and a colleague
Movie afternoon
A full house
Loading the van for the next village
Waiting for the show to start
Setting up the screen
Order your limited edition artist print poster
200 €, shipping included
Ships from Paris within 8 working days. Only 10 prints available. Order while supplies last (campaign launch: September 2026).
06 — About ONM
The Organization for Nonviolent Movements works to ensure civilian agency — the organized, strategic power of ordinary people — is recognized and resourced as part of democratic resilience and defence.