NEAR FAR EAST

Czech documentary filmmaker Filip Remunda sets off with his camera team to Ukraine, a country that he feels connected to in many regards. The cinematic journey begins in Prague with Tania from Transcarpathia and lasts a year. In the course of their travels, the filmmakers encounter all kinds of people: Tania’s family in Western Ukraine, journalists from Luhansk and Dnipropetrovsk in Kiev, but also teachers and factory workers in the Donbass. Emotionally charged discussions butt up against nationalistic-militaristic beauty pageants and bombed-out houses in the eastern part of the country. With a great deal of empathy and reflection, the director paints a portrait of a land torn by war and dominated by an all-pervading sense of helplessness.