It is located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Crimea, at the south-eastern corner of the Dnieper–Bug estuary of the Black Sea, surrounded by wetlands and protected forests.

The system changed little following independence, continuing to use Soviet-era procedures written in Moscow, with a reputation as the largest, most bureaucratic and corrupt police force in Europe.

Bribes were required to gain employment or promotion, for many police interactions, and theft of property from crime scenes was common.

Residents Victor Kryvoborodko and Volodya Rudkovsky were elected by their fellow villagers[a] as public assistants to the militsiya precinct inspector, combining the roles of policemen and social workers, to de-escalate and settle conflicts before matters became criminal.

He returns to an anteroom where his partner Sheriff Viktor Kryvoborodko receives a phone call with a report of a man threatening people with an axe.

Without their coffee, they drive away in a yellow 1973 Lada sedan[13] to investigate, but Kryvoborodko opens the window to finish his cigarette and the car's Ukrainian flag flies away.

An elderly woman's complaints against one such new neighbour include being perpetually drunk, operating a tavern and brothel, and putting an anaconda in her firewood shed.

Following the official transfer, Kolya begins tidying the overgrown yard of weeds and refuse while a neighbour loudly complains of an alcoholic wife-beating thief moving in.

A young man named Serhiy announces at a village council meeting his new group which seeks to form an independent community politically separated from Ukraine, issuing human passports and withholding taxes from the corrupt government.

There is excitement when a military convoy passes through the village; Kryvoborodko has his young son Nikita pose for pictures in fatigues with an assault rifle.

They find the recipient of another draft notice dead in his home from apparent violence, and call the militsiya to begin a criminal investigation.

[7] Sociologist Christina Jarymowycz found the film to have themes similar to that of the Maidan: distrust toward state institutions and a desire to take matters into one's own hands.

They act as a buffer, trying to resolve issues before involving the militsiya, and become an effective alternative to state structures that offer little empathy or reliability.

[17] A preliminary version of the film was workshopped and developed with the guidance of expert documentary creators at the IDFAcademy Summer School in 2014.

[18] With additional funding, the crew returned to the village in May 2015 to record reactions to Kolya's arrest and imprisonment and the 70th anniversary Victory Day celebration, which concludes the film.

[19][20] A final cut of 88 minutes was assembled by Bondarchuk and co-editor Kateryna Gornostai, with sound by Borys Peter and original music by Anton Baibakov.

[21] Its domestic premiere was at the DocuDays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival on 26 March 2016[5][2] when it was screened in seven Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Mariupol, Odessa and Kherson.

[22] Ukrainian Sheriffs received distribution support from the IDFA Bertha Fund, and was released throughout Ukraine in July 2016, then to the Baltic and Balkan regions in September.

[2] Neil Young, in The Hollywood Reporter, described Ukrainian Sheriffs as "an episodic, wryly amusing affair, displaying considerable interest in and sympathy with human foibles.

[13] Jarymowycz wrote that the film "artfully evokes both difficult truths and moments of hope in everyday lives of Ukrainians" but felt that its narrative simplified and idealized the village rather than challenging the audience with its rougher complexities.