Ukrainian intelligence services have intercepted thousands of phone calls Russian soldiers made from the battlefield in Ukraine to their homes in Russia, painting a stark picture of the cruelty of the war. In the film, these recordings are juxtaposed with silent compositions of images of the destruction caused by the invasion, and the day-to-day life of the Ukrainian people who resist and rebuild. The voices of the Russian soldiers contain different tonalities – from filled with heroic illusions to complete disappointment and loss of reason, from looting to committing more horrible war crimes, from propaganda to doubt and disillusionment. The conversations expose the dehumanizing power of war and the imperialist nature of the Russian aggression.

Director Oksana Karpovych: “I was interested in the conversations that the men had with the women. I quickly realised that they were one of the richest materials we had. There was something really particular about the conversations when the Russian soldiers phoned their mothers, wives, and girlfriends. I felt that the soldiers opened up more with the women, and their conversations were more intimate. This was important to me because it was showing their human side, and I wanted to explore that humanity and how these people get dehumanised and demoralised.”

In Russian with subtitles in Latvian and English.