Shards of Light
Showtimes
The Russian war against Ukraine has now been ongoing for nearly four years. During this time, human rights violations, brutality, death, and destruction have become part of everyday life for Ukrainians. This is happening just two thousand kilometers from Finland. We must talk about Ukraine even as the media gradually grows accustomed and begins to forget the conflict, even as everything is slowly becoming normalized.
This documentary directed by Marcus Lenz and Mila Teshaieva introduces five Ukrainians whose lives have been fundamentally altered by the war. We follow their everyday moments, their hopes, and their grief. The war itself is never shown; it unfolds in the background and echoes through moments of everyday life—from a theatre group rehearsal to a soldier’s wife constantly checking her phone for messages from the front. Personal reality is shaped under the pressure of its surroundings and haphazardly constructed normalcy prevails, yet beneath it all there is a deep longing for justice.
The documentary’s brilliance lies in its decision to focus not on the war itself, but on individual lives affected by it. The viewer can connect more deeply with a teenager channeling her fear to art, a wife accused of treason, or a child being trained to search for
landmines than with shifting war strategies. Those living in an impossible situation do not give up, for there are also moments of hope—shards of light.
One of the documentary’s protagonists sends WhatsApp messages to the Russian soldier who killed his father. They argue over whose motivations are justified, who has the right to seek revenge. In the midst of war, the need for communication and connection persists. We want to look the enemy in the eye and to understand how we ended up in the midst of all this, wishing for one another’s death. We want to understand how we could possibly free ourselves from an endless cycle of violence.
Shards of Light is an independent follow-up to When Spring Came to Bucha (2022), previously screened at DocPoint to a sold-out audience. It follows the same characters, yet stands on its own as a strong, self-contained work, accessible even to viewers who have not seen the earlier festival hit.
Joonas Kallonen
