Klondike

Heavily pregnant Irka lives with her husband Tolik in a village in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. It is July 2014 and fighting is taking place on the nearby Russian-Ukrainian border. A wall is missing in the living room of their house, having fallen victim to the hostilities. This exposes a view of the barren landscape which is becoming a theatre of war. Even so, Irka refuses to leave her home. While Tolik’s separatist friends expect him to join their fight, Irka’s brother accuses him of betraying Ukraine. When a Malaysian Airlines plane crashes nearby, Irka and Tolik initially think of it as another act of war. But the shooting down of passenger flight MH17 by a Russian defence missile is an accident. (Festival information, Berlinale 2022)

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