Bad Roads (2020)

What lesser version of ourselves does war transform us into?

We're survivors. We’re animals.

In a democratic country with low unemployment and access to health care, it's easy to have morals or pretend to be noble. Plummeted into poverty and the threat of extinction, we're more likely to do whatever it takes to live - avoidance, running or fighting.

'Bad Days' isn't about running away. This is about those left behind.

It's appropriate that it’s an anthology, four stories showing different angles to devolution in the Ukrainian context of war. The theme may be consistent but tension, or the lack thereof, isn't. Consequently, I recommend that each be watch individually, at different times. As short films, they’re stronger. And they need to be impactful because 'Bad Days' is important.

1: A school headmaster arrives at a checkpoint without his identity document. The frustration at not being able to move freely within one's own country reminds me of '200 Meters', the excellent Palestinian movie. The personal and internal conflict here is meekness versus bravery.

:2 The first part indirectly introduced the topic of sex during war. Or maybe it's more precise to state men versus women with the caveat that women are capable of making their own bad choices. Here, a young woman and her grandmother sit at a bullet riddled bus stop, the latter trying to persuade the teen orphan to come home with her instead of pursuing her infatuation with a soldier.

3: This is the most direct and impactful segment. A soldier has captured a woman. He claims to enjoy inflicting pain, and enacts it upon her, but he pauses at the possibility of love which suggests he wasn't an animal before the war.

4: What would you do if you ran over a chicken? What would you do if you were the chicken's owner? Are we always who we are, or does poverty devolve us Although subtle, I found this part to be profound.

Director Natalya Vorozhbit has made a decent debut.