PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE EMBASSY OF UKRAINE

Donbass is a place. Donbass is in Eastern Ukraine and it’s at war. There are political separatists, gangs, robberies, armed conflict and the ever-present propaganda and corruption of power. And in Donbass, the poor always suffer.

Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa deals with the weighty themes of a society in grim free-fall, but offsets it with the relief of absurdist comedy. Told across a series of 12 interconnected vignettes, the film takes a look various facets of conflict from war to propaganda. This is a film that deals with the miserable, and yet draws something timely and universal that perhaps we all could learn from.