A House Made of Splinters

A children’s shelter in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk. The grey/brown of the region, characterized by decay, contrasts with the bright colours and genuine warmth found inside the home. The children who end up here are those who have been abandoned and forgotten, and the kids are well aware of their cruel fates, yet remain brave in the face of them. They rarely allow themselves the luxury of tears. They’re permitted to stay for nine months before they are transferred to a state home or to a foster family. Occasionally a relative is found who can take them in. Quietly observational and with delicate visual imagery, the film follows the children’s everyday lives and their imaginary worlds. It reveals a cosmos of soap bubbles, oscillating between self-invented choreography and emotionally charged pop songs, deep friendship, and their experiences of the environment, marked by violence and alcoholism, outside this place of refuge. Made before the Russian invasion in February 2022, it also presents an impressive picture of the Donbass region, an area ravished by decades of fighting.