Tomáš Rafa

Ukrainians prepare for the Russian invasion.

"Open the borders," chant democratically minded residents in Berlin and frustrated refugees behind the barbed wire of makeshift camps. The winding path between them is interwoven with encounters with empathetic volunteers and clashes with repressive state forces and hostile far-right citizens.

The film recreates gradual transition of the society from peaceful life to the state of war. Shot in March-April 2014 in Donbas, it follows the transformation of social protest into an armed revolt, supported by covert foreign invasion. The film doesn't focus on individual stories, instead showing the mechanisms of inflaming the war that lead to the social collapse.