Timestamp

The three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have found humanity at its bravest and basest alike, conflicting energies given full display in Timestamp. A school day proceeds apace until air sirens send young children into an underground shelter. Just 18 kilometers from the front, others walk amidst classrooms turned to rubble. Adolescents train in a “patriotic military game” treated with seriousness that belies any sense of play. A combat vet bluntly informs a packed classroom that the front lines brought “nothing good.” Danger hovers over every moment of Timestamp—every expression of love, anger, friendship, and freedom. In this patchwork approach to a conflict no single film could sufficiently capture, director Kateryna Gornostai (whose previous fiction feature, Stop-Zemlia, was in ND/NF 2021) has achieved something grand, cutting through the noise and partisanship to put us in the shoes of a brave, battered populace. Winner of the Eurimages New Lab Outreach Award at CPH:DOX.