Intercepted

Oksana Karpovych Oekraïne 2024 93 min.

Phone calls from Russian soldiers to family and friends were intercepted by the Ukrainian secret service. They give a startling insight into the hearts and minds of the Russian armed force. Some conversations show them to be more human, and some more inhuman, than you could ever suspect. Hard-hitting, haunting, sobering.

"What drives the people who come to war in our country?" Ukrainian director Oksana Karpovych seeks the answer in intercepted phone calls from Russian soldiers to their home front.  The soldiers' confessions about the rape, pillage and torture of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war are as shocking as the approval of their loved ones on the other end of the line. This soundtrack of hatred, chauvinism and propaganda is set against images that search for hope after the destruction: reclaimed Ukrainian villages, towns and highways that are slowly filling up with life again.