Trempel Films

Ukraine after February 24, 2022. There is a war going on. Two journalists attempt to highlight the extent of the destruction and suffering while staying alive. By chance, they meet a confused woman whose story symbolizes an unfolding national drama.

Surreal worlds, elegiac images and romantic letters form a stream of suppressed memories. A young man discovers diaries and film reels of his recently deceased mother. Ukrainian director Igor Minaev melts his rarely seen shorts from Soviet times into an emotional journey into the past.

A contemplative film whose idea is to explore the creation of the myth about the Donbas by using archive footage from documentary and feature films. The film's plot develops along two planes. The first is life through the eyes of Soviet propaganda and the Donbas as a showcase of ideology. The second is real life, hidden from unwelcome eyes. The film uses archive footage and recordings of interviews with former Donbas residents who witnessed Russian aggression and became its victims. Life promised to become a symphony of work, joy and welfare, but turned out to be a delusion and a manipulation. Now there are no illusions left. The symphony of the Donbas has turned into a cacophony of the Donbas.

«Izolyatsia» was a major art center in Eastern Europe, was transformed into a prison and torture camp after Russia's 2014 occupation of Donetsk. This film examines survivor testimonies, revealing the tragic dehumanization of a place once dedicated to art.