Life in Ukraine be like

I was born and have lived my entire conscious life in Ukraine. Since childhood, I have experienced the stages of the country's socio-political development firsthand. Therefore, I have always been deeply immersed in the context of the processes driving the country forward toward values close to its people.
With the outbreak of russia’s open war against Ukraine in February 2014, followed by the mad full-scale invasion in February 2022, countless tragedies, acts of heroism, and paradigm-shifting events have occurred. These have become deeply rooted in the informational sphere of our everyday life, instantly shaping the context through a hyper-fast exchange of information.
Once, while discussing life in Ukraine with my colleagues, we came to the realization that the contemporary everyday life and symbolism forged within the country during the years of war look entirely absurd when stripped of their context.
For instance: a national idol is a mine-sniffing dog?! Yes, that’s the new normal. A bathtub filled to the brim with fluffy pillows and blankets?! Yes, the new normal. Postage stamps featuring swear words and drones?! Yes, the new normal. And what about fences, lampposts, and every conceivable vertical surface painted yellow and blue? Meanwhile, massive, bloodthirsty bombardments by Russian forces have also become a regular occurrence.
This sparked my interest in exploring how it happens and how it feels to encounter this neo-Ukrainian context for the first time after a long absence. How does it feel when something once familiar to you now seems new, fresh, and alien? Due to certain circumstances, you removed yourself from this specific flow of meanings, and now you are plunging headfirst back into it, re-evaluating the surrounding eccentricities and uncovering their meaning.
In the film, this process is experienced by the character Olga. She returns to the country under the guise of resolving educational matters after spending three years abroad as a refugee. Remembering only the chaos of the first days of the invasion, she finds herself in the bizarre, pseudo-stable everyday reality of civilian residents. This reality is embodied by her ex-boyfriend and the film’s protagonist, Oleg, who slowly introduces Olga—and simultaneously the audience—to his Ukrainian life and his sincere pursuit of individual freedom.
In this frantic process of interaction between opposites—peace and war, man and woman, captivity and freedom.
Through this piece of cinematic art, I aim to convey the premise that superficiality destroys meaning. Meaning itself can be hidden in the strangest and most non-obvious places, welcoming a search for it in these times of post-absurdism.