Checkpoint Zoo Review – Raw, Animal Rescue Highlights Forgotten Casualty of War, Intense
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Tuesday, 12 August 2025 11:43
- Written by Janet Walker
Checkpoint Zoo, from Abramorama, presents an intense story of the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to move all animals in Feldman Ecopark Zoo, located just miles from the war front to a safe location.
Feldman Ecopark Zoo located in Kharkiv as we learn, before the Russian invasion was a combined animal care and therapy park for children with special needs and it was a haven for those in the local region to understand the habitats of animals and to see, in person, some of the world's most exotic animals.
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This was all before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Ecopark Zoo, which is located just outside of Kharkiv, some 15 miles from the Russian-Ukraine border. When the invasion began, it began on three sides, and the Eastern side, which is were the zoo was located, was immediately threatened.
Ecopark founder, Oleksandr Feldman, who has a deep passion for the animals understood they would need to move them, or they would be killed by the shelling. Throughout the documentary we meet the volunteers, a veterinarian PhD student, his family and friends, Ecopark volunteers and employees, began moving the animals to Mr. Feldman's home.
Suddenly his home was filled with every animal, primates, parrots, predators, alpacas, llamas, pigs, hawks, and more as he understood the only way for them to survive the war was to move them to a more calm area. Some of the animals were so psychologically wounded by the constant shelling that they thrashed against their cages and eventually killing themselves.
The effort took about three months, and as we see through documentation, the beginning had moments of levity as the volunteers attempted to corner the birds or pigs and chase them into the van that would ferry them to their new home.
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Into the third month, we begin to see the Russian drones flying above the zoo, and seconds later the whole area would be impacted. There is footage of unexploded bombs and the remnants of the barrage of repeated airstrikes.
We also begin to understand the volunteers and workers were becoming better at hearing the approaching bombs and taking cover quicker. Checkpoint Zoo isn't just a suspenseful, but fun, attempt to move the animals. As the war continues the shelling intensifies with greater precision.
Then it is time to move the predators, the tigers, lions, jaguars, and bears. As they have also experienced the repeated shelling and the psychological instability of war, they are quicker to react. We are told of an accident in this effort, where the lion gabbed the arm of the volunteer, and after weeks of no food, no water, and constant shelling, even as they were able to pull him from the small opening in the cage, he was dead.
So, moving the predators was out, everyone thought until Mr. Feldman decided to just reach out on social media to the world and see what happens. What he didn't expect was the world to respond with such generosity. Soon, supplies to feed the animals arrives, tranquilizers arrived, and more importantly cages and a large truck for transport.
Watching them move the lion is funny, as the men understand if the tranquilizer wears off, they are dunner. And when the lion opens his eye, out of reflex, they didn't realize they could move so quickly.
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By the last day, with only the ostriches located on the eastern side of the nature preserve, and very close to the Russian front, the shelling had died down a bit, it was a beautiful sunny day, their task was nearly completed, and along with the media who showed up to help celebrate the successful effort to move the animals, several former employees and their families also came to say good work and until we meet again.
As soon as the ostrich was loaded into the van, an intense and unexpected airstrike began. And then the howls, the horrors of war echoing through the deserted park, a child's cry and a mother's scream.
Looking through the lens of war, Checkpoint Zoo is an heroic and costly effort by animal lovers to save that what once was most precious to them, a 20,000 stall zoo, saving everything from the predators to the primates, the hawks to the Ostriches, and finding a community of likeminded dedicated zoo keepers, veterinarians, pet doctors, and volunteers willing to support this contemporary Noah's Ark attempt, in the continual threat of military bombardments and shelling, and facing sure death, to move the Feldman Ecopark Zoo inhabitants from the Russian front in Kharkiv to safety.
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The documentary footage is heavy with Go pro and cell phone videos, which allow viewers to see the actual, and not recreated, conditions the team of volunteers were facing. Even the interviews stop periodically as the shelling is heard over the interview. The cost, both in human casualty, animal deaths, and financial, of the effort cannot be overlooked.
Checkpoint Zoo opens in theaters beginning August 15, 2025 in select markets. See it.
For more information access this link Ecopark.
Country: Ukraine.
Language: English, Ukrainian with English subtitles.
Runtime: 107 minutes.
Director: Joshua Zeman.
Producer: Zachary Mortensen, Joshua Zeman, Ian Davies, Torquil Jones.
Executive Producer: Leonardo DiCaprio, Phillip Watson, Jennifer Davisson, Barry Smith, Catherine Quantschnigg, Gabriel Clarke, John McKenna, Bonamy Grimes, Shawn Singh, Caitlin Colford, Lauren Cohen, Phillip Cohen, Lauren Obed, Jordan Schwartz, Alex Finger, Zach Finger.
Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has completed two books, the non-fiction narrative, "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose." Both are available on Amazon. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a former member of the International Federation of Journalists.
