This powerful theatrical debut by Maryna Er Gorbach screened at Sundance 2022. A very timely  war drama set in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine in 2014. 

……Timely , as it was released just before Russia decided to invade Ukraine this year.

….Including the tragedy of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 killing all 300 passengers and crew by Russian Separatists, it is a powerful statement to the horrors of war, the stress on families and neighbours, and the unwillingness of peoples living side by side, speaking the same or almost the same languages, to live peacefully together because of ideas fed in many cases by false narratives.

…..The film starts off with a conversation in the dark between husband Tolik and his very pregnant wife Irka. Tolik is trying to convince his wife to go to the hospital in the middle of the night. However he is really trying to convince her that they should leave this place. Suddenly the screen lights up and an errant bomb fired by a Russian separatist has hit their front wall which is totally destroyed. This sets the tone for the chaos that is about to unfold.

…….This superb film has so many strong elements. The extraordinary cinematography  of Sviatoslav Bulakovskyi, highlighting the panoramic  views of the Donetsk region in Eastern Ukraine.

…..The strong casting of actors Sergey Shadrin ( Husband Tolik), Oleg Shcherbina ( Irka’s brother Yaryk) and the amazing Oxana Cherkashyna ( Wife Irka). whose performance in some of the latter scenes are Oscar worthy.

We are presented with scenes of a simple minded Tolik, who is barely tolerated by wife Irka,  and dominated and manipulated by his friend Sanya, who has fallen in with the more hardened  separatists forcing Tolik to use his automobile to do their bidding. Such as killing their only cow and transporting the meat to feed the separatist soldiers, helping a couple from the Netherlands who are searching for their daughter, a passenger on the downed flight # 17 ,and many other similar scenes.

Then there is Irka, trying to clean her home after the bombing, tending to what’s left of their garden,  milking the cow before it is slaughtered and worrying about her bombed out stroller and where she will put her baby. These comic scenes adding a touch of light humour with all this trauma. 

……In the midst of all this chaos Irka’s brother Yaryk, living in Kiev, and an ardent nationalist comes to rescue Irka and ensure her safety from the separatists, and her husband, whom he believes is an dedicated separatist.

…..Amongst all of this we are presented with shots of people leaving their homes, together with Russian soldiers amongst them, scenes of the downed flight 17 being reconstructed and  searches for the black box of the doomed airline, in and around the area where Irka and Tolik live.

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We wish to provide a warning to viewers without giving away any spoilers about the final scenes of the film. They may be difficult to watch!  This could be expected in a film of war and destruction made with such impact!