The film also screens on Monday, October 20 | 1:15 PM | BB
The war in Ukraine has been well documented as an ongoing atrocity in a number of brilliant recent films (the Oscar-winning 20 Days in Mariupol, Porcelain War, Viktor, The Invasion, etc.), but Kateryna Gornostai’s film is something different. Using no narration or talking heads or any voice-over commentary, she looks at the everyday lives of teachers and students from different corners of Ukraine in a time of war (i.e., now). The students sing patriotic songs about a war they’re too young to understand, and they attend classes in rooms that are little more than rubble. Roughly over the course of a school year, the students’ attitudes change—early air raids tend to produce panic, but by year’s end they’re just another part of the day—in ways that are both inspiring and heartbreaking. The teachers emerge as quiet heroes, doing whatever they can to see that these students are able to experience something like childhood. As critic Guy Lodge said, “Gornostai has achieved something grand, cutting through the noise and partisanship to put us in the shoes of a brave, battered populace.” ~SM