ukraine and russia in a state of war

How can we under­stand what this war does to people? Alina Mak­si­menko and Olha Zhurba, two Ukrain­ian film­mak­ers, have found very dif­fer­ent approach­es to making life during the war com­pre­hen­si­ble on film.  It is Feb­ru­ary 2022, and the fight­ing around Kiev forces film­mak­er Alina Mak­si­menko to move to her par­ents’ vil­lage in the north-east of Ukraine. This is where she makes her film IN LIMBO. As the impacts get audi­bly closer, many neigh­bors flee. Alina and her par­ents decide to stay and have to learn to deal with this isolation.  In her film SONGS OF SLOW BURNING EARTH, Olha Zhurba devel­ops a kind of diary of every­day life during the war. Her camera is direct, she is among and with the people. In her images, she achieves an inten­si­ty and close­ness that is hard to resist. If there is such a thing as a soul, here it lies open.  The third film in this series gives a rare insight into the future of those who can no longer imag­ine a life on the Russ­ian side. In their film DOM, Svet­lana Rodina and … read more