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Children in Eastern Ukraine are living along the 20 mile line where there is not yet fighting with Russia, and the war hasn't officially begun. They live in a group home while their parents, mostly raging alcoholics, are working with the courts to determine if the children will be returned to their homes, or moved to a foster home or orphanage. It appears that most of these kids don't have parents who ever show up even to visit. The social workers and teachers at the home are amazing, they provide so much love and care, but each child has only 9 months to live at this home at which point they will leave for a different destination. We follow a number of children and their stories, most heartbreaking among them is a child whose two younger siblings are also in the home and at maybe 11 years old, he must take care of them both. The prospect of separating the three kids is devastating.
One of the most difficult parts of this film is that these children are seemingly caught in a terrible cycle in which they live without caring parents (or without parents who have the capacity to show their care), then they themselves vow to be better parents or to not have children at all, they themselves become alcoholics, they have kids, and their kids end up in this same group home. And, to finally finish off your tender heart, just as the film is ending, the war is beginning in earnest and all of these children must be evacuated, but as the movie notes, there is no safe place anywhere in Ukraine to take them.
For the first time ever, I'll note how truly perfect the name of this film is. It would be nice to be lulled into the belief that these kids are finally, for the first time, in a stable and joyful home where adults take care of them. But no, this home - this seemingly better home - is one that is made of splinters. These children don't die and there are no stab wounds. There are just 1000 tiny cuts, each one damages their souls, if not their skins.
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