Ostannii Prometei Donbasu

"They 'freed' us from our houses": With bitter irony, one of the workers stands before the rubble of his destroyed home. Even in this moment it becomes clear that behind the rhetoric of the Russian invasion and its promises of liberation there lies nothing but suffering, loss, and destruction. Where stood the heavy industry of Donbas, once celebrated as the pride of the Soviet Union, ruins now bear witness to destruction and uprooting. Archival footage from the 1930s contrasts with the present: back then, it was reconstruction; today, it is systematic annihilation by those who see themselves as the heirs of this era. It feels as if history were repeating itself. (Julia Schneider, Cottbus Film Festival)