When Spring Came to Bucha

After 35 days of siege and brutal combat, Putin’s army withdrew from Bucha in March 1922. This was the moment that Mila Teshaieva and Marcus Lenz entered the small Ukrainian city, armed with their camera. Having arrived from Berlin, they decide to document the reunion of the inhabitants with their disfigured city, by meticulously filming the first signs of new life. They pay attention to details such as the arrival of spring, awaiting the first buds, then blossoms, on the branches of the seemingly lifeless trees. They film Yuri, who is fighting to ensure drinking water for the population; Liudmyla, who is searching for her husband’s body; and Olenka, who is now the only child in her class at school… During a ceremony for giving thanks to and blessing the fighters, a newlywed couple kiss in a carpark. As many moments that speak to the deep wounds that must now be healed, and carry the traces of the resilience announced by the spring. 

Madeline Robert