Mud

Eighth month of the full-scale war against Ukraine. A few kilometers from the border, Essentuki mud bath clinic is operating as usual. Visitors sign children up for special inhalations, as new portions of throbbing mud is loaded into the rusty soviet supply system. Exhausted nurses immerse customers into thick substance, then swaddle their bodies. Frontline news and barking voices of propagandists are echoing across the halls. And a laundry worker is keeping count, down below in the basement while singing an old Odessan song… One of the first cinematic testimonies from inside the country that started the war.