BABSKE RADIO

Yaltsovka, a small Ukrainian village some 90 kilometres to the west of Kiev. A remote place where time apparently stands still. Every evening, the local women congregate by the garden fences and sit together until the cows and geese are led back from pasture. Hanna, Olga, Nadya and the others exchange gossip about major and minor goings-on in the village and the surrounding communities, talk about the butter prices, the foibles of their husbands, sometimes about politics. And, of course, about everyday problems and possible solutions. Their husbands refer to these sessions as “babske radio”– the wives’ radio. This reliable source of interesting gossip is an excellent way of passing the time and also an important market for information. “I hear one thing, you hear another, and that way everybody knows what’s going on.” The German director Elke Sasse’s quiet, restrained observation of this village and its rituals conveys a picture far removed from hectic city life. But idyllic and quaint though Yaltskova may seem, it would be wrong to think that history has passed by unnoticed. The village was visited by war on several occasions; the women’s faces still bear the traces of suffering and hunger. Nor is life is simple at present; prosperity has yet to reach this part of the country. The villagers accept the situation with good humour and wit: “The shops are full of food and sweet things – the lot. All we need now is money to buy them with ...”