Set at the start of the Donbas war in 2014, Valentyn Vasyanovych’s fifth feature, Reflection, chimes horribly with the current mood, grim and exacting as it is compared with previous, more ironic films about the conflict such as Sergei Loznitza’s Donbass and Roman Bondarchuk’s Volcano. It is composed in largely static tableau shots, many of them featuring windows, windscreens and other partitions, implying both the estranged unreality of the conflict taking place so close to civilised life, as well as an elusive redemption sought by the film’s characters.
The first window gets covered in multicoloured splatters at the paintballing birthday party of Polina (played by Nika Myslytska, Vasyanovych’s daughter), child of Serhiy (Roman Lutskyi), a Ukrainian surgeon. It’s a playful allusion to nearby warfare, which Serhiy discusses with Andriy (Andriy Rymaruk), the current partner of his ex-wife Olha (Nadia Levchenko). But when the two men head out to the frontline, they run into a Russian checkpoint and are captured. Serhiy is tortured by fists and electrodes, then forced to assist in the brutalisation of other Ukrainians – including Andriy – by checking their vital signs to see if they are still alive.
