A weary figure in a soldier’s uniform rises from the silence that remains amid the wreckage of a derailed train. Oleksandr Dovzhenko follows the footsteps of a soldier returning to Kyiv, having left the devastation of World War I behind. The city is shaken by clashes erupting in the post-revolutionary streets. The absurdity cast by tear gas intersects with the harsh reality of the trenches on the very same street. As the Bolshevik resistance rising at the Arsenal factory becomes the target of nationalist forces, the inner turmoil of those left behind points to a reality as harsh as the iron rails.

1 win