A film from the documentary series Between Communism and Modernism.

A story about Ukrainian monumental art of the Soviet period in Mariupol.

Photographer Stanislav Ivanov has lived in Mariupol all his life. He explored the history, streets, buildings, and monumental art. The Pryazovian city is one of the richest in mosaic monumentalism in Ukraine. Some mosaics are more than half a century old. The Tree of Life panel, created by a team of artists led by Alla Horska and Viktor Zaretskyi, was walled up after the artist's death and rediscovered in 2008. Stanislav Ivanov and art historian Oleksandr Chernov collected this and other stories in the album All Shades of Mariupol Mosaics. They understood that over time, the works could disappear without a trace.

After 24 February, the mosaics, like hundreds of thousands of Mariupol residents, became hostages of the occupation forces of the Russian Federation.

In the film, we are transported to peaceful Mariupol in December 2021 and explore the city and its mosaics together with Stanislav, transported to the place where time and the elements seemed to be the greatest threats.