Although this Ukrainian drama mostly unfolds in and around a small farmhouse on the Donbas steppes in 2014, it contains on a microcosmic scale all the fundamental components that have contributed to the conflict in the region. There’s the inherent tension between Ukrainians and Russians, symbolised in the marriage between Ukrainian wife Irka (Oxana Cherkashyna) and ethnically Russian husband Tolik (Sergiy Shadrin); the interventionist forces from Russia and Chechnya we see tramping through the area stirring up hatred and bloodshed; and the fatal blend of machismo, sheer fecklessness and trigger-happiness that causes stupid acts of destruction. In the space of a single opening shot that pans 360 degrees around one room, heavily pregnant Irka and Tolik go from being ordinary expectant parents, cheerfully bickering over where Irka’s hospital bag is, to traumatised victims of war when a stray mortar blows the front of their house away.
Seconds before the wall of their sitting room is obliterated, Tolik speaks about getting away from the war that’s coming, but by the end of the film it’s obvious that it is Irka who has been stubbornly set on staying put. The film, by female Ukrainian director Maryna Er Gorbach, is dedicated to all womenkind – and presumably we’re meant to admire Irka’s bullish determination and commitment to her home, the cow she milks every day, the chickens she keeps, and the preserved vegetables made in preparation for the long winter.
