Trailer
About the film
Director of photography: Alexandra Ivanova
Russian citizen and Soviet-born Ukrainian native Vitaly Mansky crisscross Ukraine to explore Ukrainian society after the Maidan revolution as mirrored within his own large Ukrainian family. They live scattered all across the country: in Lviv, Odesa, the separatist area in Donbas, and Sevastopol in Crimea. The film is looking for reasons for the conflict after which citizens of a single country found themselves on different sides of barricades including the director's own family. The main narrative takes place in the here and now, starting with the turning point of ex-president Victor Yanukovych's flight to Russia. But below the main narrative, there is a strong historical undercurrent, because the lives of the protagonists of the film are marked by history on every step they take. This undercurrent will carry information about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict's deep roots in centuries of close ties between the two countries.
Festivals:
TIFF (People's Choice Documentary Award nomination), KVIFF (Best Documentary nomination), OIFF