Sybilla Marie Wester Tuxen

Alyona, Alika and Katya dream of love and friendship, but most of all of leaving Putin’s Russia. When the war against Ukraine breaks out, it becomes harder for the three young women to leave the vast country in the East, but also even more unbearable to stay. So one has left for Georgia, another for Spain, while the third stays behind in Russia. Their generation does not believe that political engagement changes anything. Instead, they show their resistance by living a modern and more Western life, where gender, sexuality, pop music and identity issues are vital. Set at night in cars, apartments and backyards, Sybilla Tuxen’s dark and artistically uncompromising debut film tells the story of a rebellious yet resigned section of Russian youth on the fringes of established society.

In this film war is an atmosphere, rather than a series of journalistic facts. Through music we visit all layers of society. In the form of a poem we show how it feels when your country is in an unwinnable conflict. Dusk sets the scene for a war that came unexpectedly. The soldier smokes his last cigarette in the window before taking the elevator to certain death. A mother prays for the sons of Ukraine. A babushka at Maidan sings: “If he meets death – may it be instant”.