Iya Myslytska

Christmas Lviv. Cellist Orest is entangled in a chain of personal, domestic and work problems. And at some point it reaches the boiling point.

Maria, aged 82, and her sick son Sashko live out their days in a remote province. Sashko went blind because of serious illness. He’s afraid that his mother is dying, but Maria desperately clings to life as she realizes that no one will take care of her son. They may seem to be acting irrationally, but they are heroically unwilling to surrender. Maria buys a calf, Sashko starts to build a tractor, groping his way in the darkness…

A soldier suffering from PTSD befriends a young volunteer hoping to restore peaceful energy to a war-torn society.

The film centers on Ukrainian surgeon Serhiy, who is captured by the Russian military forces in the conflict zone in Eastern Ukraine, and while in captivity, he is exposed to horrifying scenes of humiliation, violence and indifference toward human life. After his release, he returns to his comfortable middle-class apartment and tries to find a purpose in life by rebuilding his relationship with his daughter and ex-wife. He learns how to be a human being again, how to be a father and help his daughter, who needs his love and support.

A dystopian story set in post-war Ukraine, where a frustrated film director struggles to make the most of his life after being denied the opportunity to pursue his movie-making career. Estranged from his wife and daughter, who have been living in Vienna and are reluctant to return to their war-torn nation, the director tries to find solace in his conviction that the difficult times will pass and life will return to normal.