An unprecedented immersion in the heart of a Russia that has become inaccessible to foreign media since the invasion of Ukraine.
This documentary was directed by a young Russian filmmaker, who for security reasons must remain anonymous. It is through their gaze that we discover a deep and invisible Russia.
Filmed in the Tver region, since February 24, the date of the start of the offensive, we encounter families embroiled in a war, in the grip of massive, televised state propaganda. For sometimes financial, sometimes ideological reasons, these families sent their sons, their husbands, their brothers into a fratricidal conflict with another Slavic people.
On their return from the front or between two services, they recount the horror of what was presented to them as a “special military operation” to liberate populations supposedly oppressed by a Nazi Ukrainian regime.
On the ground, they saw the lies of the propaganda, the lack of preparation of their army and the war crimes ordered by their superiors against Ukrainian civilians. They return home shocked by the reality of the front but also plagued by doubts about the legitimacy of their presence in Ukraine and the outcome of the war: “Frankly, we are losing.” This is the disillusioned observation of a young soldier interviewed on his return home, in the garrison town of Pskov.
Some admit the failure of Vladimir Putin’s regime, others find justifications for this conflict which is bogged down, remaining under the influence of the regime’s lies.
The director shows us a Russian society in the midst of an identity crisis.