Saw this as part of the Movies That Matter documentary festival 2024. In itself not revealing much breaking news. Still very interesting to watch, by drawing attention to grossly ignored aspects of the war, like dangers when staying outside as shelling can be imminent any moment, and people living more of less permanently under the ground for many months.
The opening scene is enlightening in the sense that working in the open is unsafe but still must be done, like the infrastructure workers we see repairing something on the street. What they do there is unclear but the effects on them when explosions are heard nearby is very revealing. Some drop everything and run away, other stay put at first, but hide later when shelling continues. Most of them reluctantly return when the shelling clears. Their foreman seems angry about them running away. We see nothing of the actual destruction as a result. The bombs seem falling somewhere else out of our sight.
Remarkable is that we see cars driving from A to B all the time, regardless of the falling bombs. (In the after-talk, a representative of the ZOA foundation confirms this phenomenon that people keep driving, disregarding the risks. I cannot imagine that the insides of a car really feel safe when bombs are falling.) I appreciate that hiding continuously defies all operations outside, so some must take risks to keep infrastructure and hospitals working as best as possible. Similarly, grocery must be bought to feed the population underground.
The remainder of the movie is within the confines of a metro subway station. We see people living there for two months already (footage is from the first two months of the war). The adults pass the days with simple housekeeping tasks. They seem to do not much else (maybe they are going to work outside, but that part of their lives remains invisible). Apart from that, we see much boredom yet still several people who make the most of it, like the guitar player who we hear and see several times in action.
A completely different world is shown watching how the children pass their time. They explore the tracks and the empty wagons, for instance. They also have Viewmaster-like devices showing the world outside as they remember, but we also see (imaginary?? Their phantasy??) movements in the pictures that seem impossible with these simplistic devices. One of our main protagonists gets the advice from a doctor to keep a diary about what he sees and hears. He also gets Vitamine D prescribed, not having seen the sun for many months already. The children press their parents about going outside, but it is denied as the risks are too high. We hear several stories from others who lost an arm or a leg due to a hidden mine or shelling.
All in all, several grossly ignored aspects of a war are shown. I understand that this part of Ukrainian life is not sexy to show on TV or to write about in newspapers. Instead, public media rather show destroyed buildings and tell stories of wounded people, of course apart from the really necessary pictures of battle fields and what happens there.
