Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: TRACES [Berlinale - Berlin, Germany]

is showing the aftermath of violence in Ukraine since the Russian invasion, especially sexual violence against women. Many of these women are mothers and grandmothers that weren't causing problems but just happened to be in the path of fire when knocks came on the door in the middle of the night. These fright and horror tactics, both against women as well as men is shown initially through Iryna Dovhan whose story and activism bookends what is shown in the film. She was attacked at two different times. But by showing her in her garden, then removed, then relocated to Ireland to undergo chemo for cancer and then back championing SEMA Ukraine, which she started, is key. The garden can be regrown. The only way to prevent these types of war crimes happening in any part of the world is to give voice to it. The hardest part is speaking.

Kovalenko smartly records these women telling their story, mostly off camera while the camera shows them existing at their homes and would-be safe spaces. Nina, in particular is very affecting simply because she does go on camera, which is still a risk for them in an ongoing war but just by talking it seems to help takes away the stigma in their own minds...but also realize that there are people there to help them...despite what happened in those moments. "Traces" is not an easy watch. The stories, especially with Iryna Dovhan, range back to 2014 and the only photograph shown establishes her integration. Many of these women attend protests for those women still held in prisons and those who have not told their stories.

Hearing the stories of the Russian soldiers that attacked and the words used seem barbaric but people act very strangely in times of war. The difference is in these specific modern times is that there is ways to document at least an oral history of the actions to give credence for it not to happen again or motion other people in that situation to speak up. Doyham pushes connections because many people don't want to talk. But with many incidents like this only increasing since 2020 as the war rages on, films like this that tell stories of people on the ground, especially in this way, and not the news media, gives face, context and consequence to a battle that continues to rage on but also those fighting back, in their own way, against it. B+

By Tim Wassberg