Arthouse Traffic

Ukraine, 1990s. Young Vova, cruel and tenacious, struggles to find his place among the ruthless members of the underworld in a city where crime and corruption reign.

In the historic Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, despite the cruel war that has been raging since 2014 between the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and the Ukrainian government, people try to survive in the rotten heart of chaos, where violence disguises itself as peace, propaganda becomes univocal truth and hatred reigns in the name of love.

On a cold February morning, 12-year-old Niki and his family arrive at the Kharkiv metro station to take shelter from the terrifying war raging outside. For Niki's family, daylight is synonymous with mortal danger, and the boy is not allowed to leave the station premises, living under the constant glow of their neon lights. While aimlessly wandering around the abandoned cars and full platforms, Niki meets Vika (11), and a new world opens up to him. As their bond strengthens, the children find the courage once again to feel the sun on their faces.

Lesya has committed a crime of passion which brings her a seven-year sentence in one of Odesa’s women’s correctional facilities. She has just given birth to her first child, and now she is entering a world populated only by women: inmates, nurses and wardens, women of all ages, wives and widows, daughters, sisters, pregnant women, and women with children too. If not for the color of the uniform, it would sometimes be hard to tell who is who.

A man with a stack of pulp fiction arrives in a village in the Poltava region. Locals know that his name is Slavik, that he comes from Russia, and that he doesn't drink alcohol. Otherwise, he's just like anybody else. He's just a mediocre person. He meets a bright personality in the village. She's a widow called Nina, a local producer of moonshine. Nina is about 20 years older than him. She has a past, she's nervous, but her charisma and vitality attract people. Slavik was also attracted by this. It wasn't easy for them to be together. She loved with passion and was jealous. She wanted him to dig potatoes, not to read, and to booze with her. He learned how to do only the last thing. He had thought he would spend a winter with her and then leave. But no way. Slavik returned to Nina many times as if he was tied to her with some invisible threads. He can't explain his affection for her by anything other than mysticism.

Our days. Five students of the Faculty of History sent to the archaeological practice. Professor, head of the young seekers of Antiquities, tells them the legend that during the war the museum staff had hidden above a statue of the pagan god Perun somewhere in the dungeons outside the city.

In the suburbs of the city a 7-years old boy disappears. After months of fruitless searches the boy's older sister decides to take the deal over. She is confident that she knows who kidnapped her brother. Is this enough to justify a terrible revenge?

A fictional adaptation of the history of the movement, which began in Ukraine and has spread around the world.

Documentary footage shot in the summer of 2023 by Oleh Sentsov, when his APC was hit by the enemy. Sentsov found himself in a nearby trench and, using radio communication, organized the evacuation of his unit, which was under fire, with ammunition running out. This operation was nicknamed "Real".