The film has been noted for its stunning visuals and a documentary feel attained through cinéma vérité techniques and the casting of non-actors.

Lukas, an interpreter for the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), drives three colleagues into the deserted countryside of the southern Ukrainian steppe for an inspection tour of military checkpoints near the Crimean border.

Although Lukas dislikes Vova's eccentricities, he needs his support in the village where drunken gangs carry assault rifles, the police rob detainees, slave labour is practiced, and nobody has a conventional job.

[3] Writers Daria Averchenko, Roman Bondarchuk and Alla Tyutyunnyk[4] greatly updated the plot following the Euromaidan movement, the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, the Russian annexation of Crimea and the War in Donbass, but kept the title "Volcano".

[5] The main camera was a Red Epic with Ultra Prime lenses; night exteriors were filmed with a Sony Alpha 7.

[22] Dmitry Desyaterik of The Day (Odesa-Kyiv) felt that any lacking of the screenplay was offset by Bondarchuk's ability to compose the beautiful shots, and his familiarity with the ancestral homeland in which he often films.

Sasha Rink alternated from viewing the film as surreal with "hyperbolized parodies" to documentary-realism – emphasized by rough shots and editing – which captured human essence.

Jura Povorznyk felt that the film lacked art despite its great concept and cinematography, and found its documentary feel to leave an unsettling aftereffect at the reality of the world and human nature.

He compared the film to Wild Field, but with "Ukrainianness" completely shaping it, with magic realism, social absurdity and powerful unseen dangers at every turn.

[12] Demetrios Matheou of Screen Daily noted the film "ought to be fictional but rings true", juxtaposing brutal situations with alluring imagery, while realism is achieved with cinéma vérité techniques.

[30] Vassilis Economou of Cineuropa wrote that the movie was grounded by its "documentary feel" even when the narrative approached absurdity, allowing fantasy and reality to exist in balance.

[5] Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "a poetically surreal love letter" to the Kherson region, creating a world of "alien beauty".

[8] Alissa Simon of Variety praised the visuals and the score by Anton Baibakov, and listed Bondarchuk among the three most-intriguing Ukrainian filmmakers.

She felt that the film captured the dichotomy of modern Ukraine, "hating Russians for stealing their country" but nostalgic for Soviet-era authority and security.