0x7 - Eastern Front

May 19, 2009

A gut-wrenching glimpse of the brutal realities of life and death on the Eastern front in Ukraine's fight to keep back Russian invaders. Director Yevhen Titarenko is part of the “Hospitallers”, a volunteer medical battalion working on the front line of Ukraine’s bloody Eastern Front. His crew are involved in ever-more dangerous frontline missions. The fierce fighting in and around Kharkiv pitches them into rescue missions so dangerous that, more than once, they lose members of their team. Ambulances are blown to pieces, along with medics and patients, by mines or shells. The film shifts from scenes on the frontline in the east to home leave with the family in the west. At times disturbingly raw and direct, yet always enlightening, this film shows in close-up how a nation is fighting for its survival. Part of Storyville at Eurovision.