Germany | 2022 | Documentary | 85’ | Original Version with English Subtitles
Somewhere in the Carpathians between Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland lies the village of Stuzhytsia. In Ukrainian, the name of the village means something like “cold place”. The film tells the stories of three women: the farmer Hanna, the postwoman Maria and the biologist Nelya. In the middle of the mountains, they have to cope with social reality and loneliness. The colder the Carpathian winter gets, the more human warmth the film team finds. In a tiny kitchen, Hanna shares her loneliness with the filmmakers, who remind her of her deceased sons. In the village's post office, postwoman Maria has neither stamps nor heating, but customers are warmed with liquor and songs. Somewhere in the woods and caves, biologist Nelya looks for the animal droppings that are a treasure to her. The film portrays an unknown place in the middle of Europe, where people have to decide daily between leaving and staying.