Here and Now

There is a washing machine wrapped in tape, meter-long indoor plants with roots, and children’s drawings among the hundreds of boxes on which addresses of Ukrainian cities are written. This place resembles a warehouse of lost things.

Morning in Ukraine. A russian missile hits an apartment building. Terrible destruction that leads to death. But Death decides to intervene in the situation, hesitating to take the life that was claimed by a russian missile.

Alissa is a Ukrainian model who has taken refuge in Paris. Having just lost someone close to her, she finally gets her first contract for a fashion show. Traumatized by war and exile, Alissa seems indifferent to everything around her, and now seeks only one thing: harmony.

Olesia, an 11-year-old teen from Ukraine, is growing up under the wing of her mother, away from home. Dance and touch are her ways to release anger and adjust to the reality of Brussels. Every evening Olesia waits for dad’s call from Ukraine. The family’s extreme closeness nurtures the strength of this young girl whose fragility is exposed to constant war-related anxiety after the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Longtime friends meet again and decide to spend an evening together, reflecting on old events and comprehending recent ones.

Gala and Viktor are searching for their Heaven on earth. Even during the war. That’s why they buy an abandoned house in the Carpathian Mountains and start repairing it. It’s a place of peace and calmness, where they can grow their own food, be silent, be defenseless, and drink coffee overlooking the mountains and a stork’s nest. But winter comes, the apple tree in the yard freezes, and the War reaches Heaven.