WHEN LIGHTNING FLASHES OVER THE SEA
A film by Eva Neymann
2025, 124 minutes
2025, 124 minutes
No. 461
Documentary
Documentary
Description
Day labourers smoke while looking at the Black Sea, workmen stretch out on the roof of the damaged cathedral, a boy manoeuvres us through the sunny streets and courtyards of Odesa while he dreams of a medium-size chocolate cake for his birthday and a job on a cruise ship. Yet this cheerful everyday life is tempered by a feeling of unease, for the many gaps – the holes in the historical facades, the absence of family members or the darkness caused by the power blackouts – render the omnipresence of the war far more shocking than its deceptively far-off rumblings.
The memories, experiences and dreams of the astounding people that Eva Neymann shows on her extended, attentive expedition through the harbour city become a means of survival. A refugee from Abkhazia, a nomadic clergyman, a widow who takes care of street cats, a single father whose sons live on different sides of the front, a Shoah survivor and many more give us seldom insights into the reality of a place surrounded by myths, a poetic space full of resilient humanity.
Festivals
Official Selection, Berlinale
Reviews
"Explores the persistence and resilience of locals and warzone refugees in the Ukrainian harbour city of Odesa... A beautiful impression of a town between the ropes, for whom the war is omnipresent and yet is a frontline in the distance." - CineEuropa
