SYNOPSIS

During the Kyiv summer of 2022, Gryts and Marusia are running late for a secret rave party. Due to martial law, the couple will have to stay inside the club till morning when the curfew ends.

Gryts cannot wait to play his DJ set for the first time since the beginning of the big war. When his turn comes, the loud air raid alert is heard. Gryts refuses to go to a bomb shelter, insisting that the party should go on. Observing her boyfriend’s fight with the female bodyguard Marusia suddenly reconsiders her relationship and her civic duty.

INTENTION

When Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine I was on vacation. My friends and family did all they could to discourage me from going back. Choosing between multiple invitations from empathetic foreign friends, colleagues and cultural institutions I decided to simply return home. I could not act otherwise — nor explain it rationally. Was it denial? Patriotism? Fear of change? Those poor unwatered house plants?

Extreme circumstances force us into radical decisions. But are those life-changing decisions really made in minutes or seconds? Or is it about something that was always there waiting for a good opportunity to manifest itself?

I find it especially interesting how these decisions play out in personal life and gender roles. Myself and my husband have the opposite approach to safety: he follows all the instructions carefully and puts safety first whereas I am being fatalistic and stingy about my time stolen by the war. Our arguments on this can be quite harsh. My heroine Marusia does not argue much. Yet she ends up in a situation where she cannot stand her boyfriend anymore. Moreover, she is at ease with one of the toughest choices one can possibly make in their life.