THIS RAIN WILL NEVER STOP

20-year-old Andriy Suleyman works as a volunteer for the Red Cross's humanitarian aid missions in the war-torn regions of Eastern Ukraine. Before settling in Luhansk, he fled Syria as a ninth-grader along with his family, who now live scattered across Europe and Asia. Alas, war continues to shadow him in his new life. Director Alina Gorlova accompanies Andriy in her second feature-length documentary film, both on his relief missions in Eastern Ukraine as well as on a visit to Germany to see his brother on the occasion of the latter's wedding, or on a trip to Iran to reunite with his uncle. The death of his father Lazgin finally leads Andriy back to his Syrian homeland too. By combining these elements of documentary portraiture with experimental black-and-white landscape footage and abstract images of a society at war, Gorlova succeeds in creating a sensitive and moving reflection on the nature of armed conflict.