Plai. A Mountain Path

Ukraine2021documentary75'Docudays UA (2022)

A simple rural life in a village lost among forests acquires an almost magical character in the lens of the filmmakers. Rigorous attention to frame composition and painterly chiaroscuro dignifies the characters’ everyday activities - working in the fields and caring for children and animals in the rhythm of changing seasons. But life in the Ukrainian countryside is not a fairy tale: those who can, seek work in Poland. The war, though still somewhere far away, does not let us forget about itself. Like a menacing memento, it reappears in children’s questions, radio messages and faded photographs from long ago.