When Spring Came to Bucha

Tanks and snipers target the gardens between the houses. For one month, the Russian army occupies the small Ukrainian town of Bucha near Kiev. When forces withdraw in March 2022, the houses have been destroyed and the civilian population executed. The survivors return: Yuri, municipal services manager, struggles to keep people supplied with clean drinking water. He is also responsible for identifying the many dead. Olenka is the only student in the classroom at School No. 1: two of her classmates were killed, the others have left the country. And alone in the middle of a square, a newly married couple dances radiantly, watched joyfully by the onlooking soldiers. The war in Ukraine is still raging. But life goes on, too.