Reflection

When separatists supported by Russia start a war in 2014 in the Donbas-region in Ukraine, surgeon Serhiy watches his teenage daughter Polina celebrate her birthday with her friends. They play paintball in a big hall. His ex-wife, Olha, is also there with her new husband, Andriy. While the girls are shooting paintballs at each other, the two men talk about the upcoming war. Andriy already is in service of the military. Serhiy has not registered yet, but he does see a lot of the war victims in the hospital. Russian soldiers, who present themselves as Donbas residents, capture Serhiy and he witnesses the extreme cruelty the Russians steep to, when he has to try to keep the people alive they have tortured. Andriy also appears to be captured and tortured, and Serhiy will have to make an important choice. Later, when he is set free, he is threatened by Russians to stay quiet about what he did. Serhiy looks up his ex-wife and daughter. He has to learn how to be human again, how to be a husband and father to the two who need his love and support.

This is powerful cinema with an incredible mise en scène, static shots, faraway camera, and a strong feeling for timing. Only a director with uncompromising bravery and brilliance like Vasyanovych could pull this off. Through these incredible scenes, lots of themes shine through, like betrayal and deliverance, mercy and survival, loss and love. Not a lot of directors have quite exposed the war as being hell so brilliantly as this one, but also people’s responsibility for each other is put in frame beautifully and powerfully.