“Photophobia,” Slovakia’s entry for Best International Feature in the upcoming 96th Academy Awards, is a reminder that Ukraine still merits the world’s compassion, aid and attention.

It’s a docudrama with non-actors “playing” the role Putin’s Russian invasion has limited them to, that of refugees in their own country, living in the sections of Kyiv’s subway which serve as the safest air raid shelter in the city.

“Niki” (Nikita Tyshchenko) looks to be about nine, a boy somewhat traumatized by the experiences that brought him and his family down here, urged to keep a diary by a doctor who visits everyone and checks their ears, throat, pulse and general mental wellbeing.

His biggest health issue is “Photophobia.” He needs sunlight, “Vitamin D” and fresh air. As do they all. They need a country free from Russian invasions.

Luckily for him his sister Anya (Anna Tyshchenko) is there to roam the empty stations and tunnels and play with him, his mother (Yana Yevdokymova) is there to comfort them and his friends are still somewhere that they can text him.

“Where are they,” his mother wants to know?

“They don’t say,” he replies in Ukrainian with English subtitles.

We get a glimpse of the routines of life in a shelter, food shortages but everyone shares because everybody “down here” has a story about where they were when “the war started,” some of which Niki takes to transcribing in his diary.

Niki and Anya’s parents — his stepdad (Yevhenii Borshch) is here with them — debate whether to go back “up there” because others do, only returning to the subway at night to sleep in relative safety. And they wonder if “the kids will remember this.”

Meanwhile, an elderly busker (Vitaly Pavlovich) serenades one and all with folk songs and ditties as he accompanies himself on his guitar, an entertainer keeping himself busy distracting passersby and those within earshot with reminders of their shared Ukrainian heritage via love songs and the like.

Filmmakers Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarcik limit themselves to a mere snapshot of this grim but survivable life led by those who stayed in Kyiv during the Russian siege. They pepper their picture with cell video “snapshots” of the people of the city, their lives “above” after the attack.

Their film is thus a bit myopic, even if it is a worthwhile reminder that democracies everywhere are under attack and Ukraine is the front lines of this global war for liberty and freedom from fascism.

Rating: unrated, discussions of violence

Cast: Nikita Tyshchenko, Yana Yevdokymova, Yevhenii Borshch, Anna Tyshchenko and Vitaly Pavlovich

Credits: Directed by Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarcik, scripted by Marek Lescák, Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarcik. A Cinémotif Films production.

Running time: 1:11