Iron Butterflies

Iron Butterflies is a documentary about the 2014 shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The film examines the event as a war crime and details the eight-year investigation used to uncover the truth. Using archival footage, staged black-and-white sequences, and phone intercepts, the narrative explores the role of the Russian military and the subsequent government efforts to hide the circumstances of the tragedy through propaganda.

The film was directed by Roman Liubyi, who also wrote the screenplay alongside Mila Zhluktenko. Within Liubyi's filmography, this project follows Stronger than Arms from 2014 and War Note from 2021, while preceding Time Machine Maidan from 2026. A joint production between Ukraine and Germany, the movie was produced by Volodymyr Tykhyy, Andrii Kotliar, and Ruben Bromet through the companies Trimafilm, Babylon'13, and &Bromet. The documentary has a total runtime of 84 minutes.