Wira's War

Two premature babies, twins Diana and Sophia, lie in the intensive care unit of Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Lviv with severe pneumonia. Days and weeks in stuffy bomb shelters have eaten away at their lungs. Anesthesiologist Wira Primakova takes the X-rays from the light box and shakes her head, “My God this is terrible.”

During breaks, Wira struggles to call her own children. But each phone call increases the three sons’ longing for their mother. The husband is fighting on the front lines, near Mariupol. “Maybe he won’t come back,” she says. So pass the first weeks of the war. Again and again, seriously wounded children come to Wira’s hospital. Wira fights for the lives of her young patients; as soon as they are stabilized, they are evacuated to other European countries.

But the war remains, and as the second winter of war sets in, Lviv is once again covered in snow and rocket attacks bring the power grid down, Wira finds herself stretched to her limits. “Since February 24, everything is different,” she says at the end of the film. “The feeling of happiness and joy of life has completely disappeared. On the outside, I smile, I’m cheerful. But I no longer feel any joy.”