KLONDIKE           5 suns

My personal winner for the day was KLONDIKE. It’s a fictional story about a Ukrainian couple who live in an isolated farmhouse in Eastern Ukraine, but it is set in 2014 during the war of Russian incursion when a Malaysian airliner is brought down by a Russian missile. News footage from the actual events give us more background to the story. Tolik and Irka are expecting a child, but their world faces havoc when this war is brought to their doorstep. Tolik struggles to deal with the damage to their home, the soldiers who demand that their needs be met and a wife who refuses to leave her home. Things are further complicated when Irka’s brother shows up and we find that the family has sympathies on opposite sides of the conflict. The camera work is striking with the very long scenes that slowly reveal the horrors of war in the background while the characters are struggling just to survive. The film is highly relevant to today with its message about the futility of war. It deserves some special recognition.