Vasyl Lyah

Mockumentary on the post-industrial future of Mariupol. The authors imagine what the city would be like with the developed culture of the Azov Greeks, the ethnic population of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. The plot develops in 2068 in Mariupol, where a musician from Rotterdam arrives. They participates in an art residency organized by a local institution such as the Center for Industrial Heritage (CIS).

Ihor works from home in a taxi answering service. He seems to be imprisoned in his room in a depressing apartment block opposite the pompous Orthodox cathedral. To escape the hopelessness, Ihor tries to interpret his precarious daily life as creatively as possible. Growing sunflowers on his balcony and creating rotoscoping animation on an out-of-date black&white printer become important rituals of resistance.

In the backyard of the house is a giant crater, caused by a Russian missile. The hole is like the silenced family history—throbbing and refusing to heal.

Residents of Mariupol talk about looting in shops during the siege and capture of the city by russian troops in March 2022.