KLONDIKE

Irka and Tolik live in a small village, a tiny collection of houses and stables on the Ukrainian-Russian border. With their first child on the way, they are having the typical thoughts that preoccupy soon-to-be parents. At the same time, however, they are also confronted with the growing intensity of the armed conflict between separatist militia forces and the Ukrainian army. An attack takes out one of the living room walls in their modest home and they just have to make do without it from then on. In spite of all the adversity, Irka refuses to leave her house behind, though Tolik pleads with her to make a break for the relative safety of the city. Even when the downing of passenger flight MH17 ratchets up the tension and Tolik finds himself between battle lines, she continues to stubbornly plan for her future life as a mother. Shots that seem endless and a cinematic atmosphere dominated by looming danger and grotesquely dissociated everyday reality define the film. Situated in the field of tension between sensitive family drama and unflinching anti-war film, Maryna Er Gorbach empathetically presents the psychogram of a woman trying to cope with extraordinary circumstances and a very personal perspective of the war in Ukraine that is more important today than ever.