The clientele of a rundown Soviet-era health resort search for love, health and happiness in war-torn Ukraine where air raid sirens and plumes of smoke from nearby Russian bombing raids disturb their much sought-after peace.
‘The country isn’t the same anymore,’ complains one resident in the struggling ‘18% full’ facility, which has remained much the same as when the Brutalist facility opened, while its larger-than-life manager, medical director and disco organiser try their best in this atmospheric and superbly shot documentary to help their stoic fellow countryman and women to achieve fulfilment in an ever threatening world.
Humour in the face of adversity among staff and visitors is much in evidence and captured very effectively, as is the pace of life in an area famed most for its mud baths, the area’s ‘black gold’. A compassionate and intelligent film about a people fighting to retain their freedom in which a childless couple, an injury-ravaged soldier and a man with his mother desperate to marry him off are highlighted looking for answers.
– Tony Paley
