Ukraine, 24 February. A regular winter morning transforms into an extraordinary event, and everyday life becomes part of a great war. Time slows down and space shrinks. And while the familiar world is collapsing, it's still necessary to water the flowers and buy the cat food. Explosions, sirens, queues, shelters. Evacuation, roads, checkpoints, volunteering. To stay or to leave? Which direction to run? There's a river beyond the forest, and a bridge beyond it, but you can't see it. In case of heavy fog, try to follow the sounds.

This essay-film, shot on a smartphone, attempts to capture the feeling of the 'here and now' at the end of February 2022, and to explore everyday life during the war.

 Synopsis

“The Eternity Man“ is the true story of a 104-year-old Carpathian sage's journey to eternal wisdom. It is a confession of a great soul, a man who experienced historic events throughout his lifetime that had changed the lives of entire nations and had redrawn borders.

The main character’s personality is formed by overcoming the overwhelming hardships and pain that life throws at him and so it becomes his lifelong road of discovery and enlightenment, which lead him to the temple of inner harmony and love for the Universe.

In the face of human cruelty, our hero remains humane, kind, and true to his convictions. His stamina, thirst for new experiences, and innate harmony with Nature, his wise teacher, help keep him on his sacred path. Set across the 20th century Ukraine, this spiritual, period-piece drama centers around a person who steps outside the bounds of time and space to discover the limits of the human spirit. This is the tale of Andriy Voron, the one that some people call “Eternity Man”.

Narrated by Andriy in his old age, the story uses a fractured structure that mimics the very act of remembering as the story itself is based entirely on Andriy's memories. The memories of the many lives he has lived blur together in a way that shows the purpose of a whole life lived in harmony with nature and God.

At one moment we are with him as a 9-year-old boy who learns about his missing father and the rules of Ukrainian society in the 1920's.

The next moment we are on a Ukrainian battlefield in 1939 as the 25-year-old Andriy now learns about the horrors of war in a most brutal war scene.

Each time the story jumps to another time and place in the old narrator’s memories, our hearts jump as we wonder whether he will survive the war, the heartbreak, the isolation and even self-doubt. Ultimately, this story shows that humankind can reach enlightenment even in the harshest of times, at times of war, racial divide, poverty and inhumane conditions. The viewer is invited to follow along the main character’s path of life, to see through his eyes, to feel with his heart, to sense even the slightest changes in his internal state and mindset, and to share his breath and heartbeat. Andriy's unconditoinal faith proves that at the end of every tunnel there is a light because it is in the heart.

Based on Lewis Carroll's "Crazy Tea Party".

Tea Country is a symbol of present-day Ukraine. You can draw an analogy where Alice is a modern young country looking for her way ...