INNER WARS

Since the pro-Russian separatist uprisings began in eastern Ukraine in 2014, hundreds of women have joined the armed struggle. Only a few have made it to the front. Female soldiers are often relegated to administrative posts and portrayed by the media as oddities, who are more concerned with whether they will have enough time for a manicure. But even if the female soldiers at the front naturally don't give up their femininity, they want to play an important role and fight for their country just like their male colleagues. Filmmaker Masha Kondakova went to war with three of these women. Lera, a patriot and rebel, quits her job as a journalist and joins the army. When the army packs her off to a training camp, she promptly deserts and goes straight back to the front. The young doctor Ira returns from the war injured. She fights quite different battles in Kiev, where she has to find a new place for herself in society as a disabled war veteran. Elena volunteered in 2014. She lives far away from her children and tries to balance her private and professional life. We meet three intrepid women who fight on several fronts simultaneously: against the separatists and against patriarchal society.