VanMoof’s latest global campaign was a story told in reverse. One of our most ambitious, cinematic, and meticulously crafted films yet, the film inspires people in cities to keep moving forward instead of reverting to old and destructive pre-pandemic mobility habits. Throughout the pandemic, people across the world started to stand up for what they believed in. Mobility became a hot topic as people chose to leave their cars at home, and city legislators created more space and infrastructure for people, not cars. To put it simply: the world changed.

Where you think you see the Big Apple, you really see Kyiv. We had two weeks to turn Kyiv into a metropolitan city like New York — the project was so ambitious that we couldn’t help but accept the challenge and immediately jump on this train. The main goal was to achieve a ‘metropolitan city’ look that brought New York to mind. Fortunately for us, Kyiv is a very diverse city, many thanks to the casting agency who did a great job and found the right people for this project. The only thing that didn't have to change, except for the 70 cars, 200 extras, and the 36hr blockade of a downtown crossroad, was the weather of 40 degrees. This made it extremely possible to realistically visualize the struggle in the buses, haha

The incredible ambition to turn Kyiv into a metropolitan like New York in ten days' time was a real challenge: apparently, you don't sell bikes after summer, so we had a very defined deadline to work towards. We had six weeks from the first phone call until delivery, including VFX and post. We basically had ten days to line up a shoot with over 70 cars, 200 extras, and a blocked crossroad downtown. We almost had to kill the job, since getting permits to block an intersection for 36 hours is nearly impossible. The heroes at the production company shelter.film pulled some strings and made it work in Kyiv in about a week, making it possible to shoot over 60 shots in two days.

Our heart is with our friends in Ukraine. It's unbelievable it won't be possible to achieve this anymore.