After the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian deputy minister Olha Stefanishyna embarked on the herculean challenge of steering her country’s pathway into the European Union. Shot over the course of two years, Viktor Nordenskiöld’s documentary portrait closely chronicles her race against time, as the war escalates.
Always on the move, Stefanishyna is often seen on trains or in the back of cars, as she and her staff attend seemingly endless meetings with EU officials and other world leaders. Working towards the deadline of 14 December, 2023, the date on which the European Council would decide on Ukraine’s accession, Stefanishyna is under immense pressure at home and abroad. Around the same time that a proposed bill concerning national minorities hits a snag in the Ukrainian parliament, politician Viktor Orbán, then the prime minister of Hungary, publicly voices his opposition to the enlargement of the EU.
