Winner - Directing Award, World Cinema - Documentary, Sundance Film Festival 2022
As the war in Eastern Ukraine takes a heavy toll on poor families living near the frontline, a small group of strong-willed social workers work tirelessly in a special kind of orphanage to create an almost magical safe space for kids to live in. At the time of this documentary’s filming, troops were just 20 kilometres away from this orphanage in the town of Lysychansk. Here, social workers care for kids whose families no longer can. Gorgeous, patient camerawork respects the children's vulnerability but expertly detects the unmistakable normalization of violence in their desperate play, temporary friendships and fragile family connections. Illuminating and heartbreaking, this masterful Sundance Directing Award–winner captures children, teachers and already broken souls who very well may no longer exist in a war that shows no mercy.
In Ukrainian and Russian with English subtitles.
Featuring a pre-recorded Q&A with director Simon Lereng Wilmont after the screening.
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