This is a road movie that wants to touch serious subjects, but stumbles over its own ambitions. Yes, it's OK to make an arthouse film. But when you make it so hermetic like this one, it doesn't become universal, but irrelevant.
Rokas gets a commission from a friend. He is asked,if he can transport humanitarian help to the Ukrainian army. Yes, humanitarian help not for the people, but for the army. We never are informed, which organization has collected the goods and why they start in Lithuania. Rokas knows that a war is going on. He takes his girlfriend Inga on the trip also. During the travel their conversation, if they are talking at all, never reaches beyond the level of banality. They drive a lot, at some time they pass the Polish border and suddenly they are in Ukraine.. There is a contact, but they have moved already, so Rokas has to phone somebody (whom?) and is directed to Dnepro.
For a viewer from abroad without thorough knowledge of the region's topography this is rather confusing. Their contact (without background information) asks them to spend the night in a hotel. Here is a party going on with international journalists. They discuss, if they are in a civil war, a proxy war or maybe even in a hybrid war. This discussion probably is there to show us, how little we care about the hardship of the people (whom we don't see). The Ukrainians think of themselves as the center of Europe, while they are for us a region that is far away - too far to care.
The relationship between Inga and Rokas is put on test, as both are engaging in some hanky-panky during the night. The lingua franca of this society is English, while they talk in Russian to locals and the military. When they continue the next morning, they are stopped by several block posts. At one they are involved with a soldier of mixed heritage, however he has chosen. His choice is not to die for his country, but to kill for it. At last Rokas experiences, that too much curiosity can be lethal.
Do we get more insight into the ongoing conflict in Ukraine? I don't think so. The message is that war is bad - and at least I knew that from the beginning. Does this film deliver a message that is memorable? I don't think so. The dialog is like from a phrase book of trivialities.
I think, Bartas wanted to give a universal example (therefore many close-ups and medium shots with little linking to an actual place) on the basis of a real conflict, but it does not work - at least not for me. What a pity. What a waste of time.
This film was selected for the Arte Kino Festival, where it ran 1 h 55'. IMDb tells that is has 2h 12', while Wikioedia lists it as 90'. This is confusing. - It may be because of a lousy connection, but when I watched it, the second half was without sound. Sound first came back during the credits. ⬇
3/10
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| Did you ever want to see a film that is happening in darkness? |
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| Then this is what you were you looking for. |
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