ARTE Distribution

In Ukraine, one town has never been hit by Russian bombing: Oujhorod, at the western end of the country, capital of the Transcarpathian region, which borders Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

This mountainous landscape of mystical beauty is the only place in the country where the sound of bombs does not echo. Here, life goes on peacefully, at least on the surface, with little concern for the front line, more than 1,000 kilometres away.
Yet you only have to pass through each commune to realise that this region also paid a heavy price for the war: dozens of memorials pay tribute to the men who died in the fighting. And there are many of them. Throughout Ukraine, men over the age of 18 were, without exception, liable to be sent to the front. Many of them, in the early days of the war, enlisted voluntarily to defend their homeland.
But despite the drama unfolding further east, the Carpathians remain a haven of tranquillity where Ukrainians come to recharge their batteries. For a summer, tourists, mothers and children, citizens displaced because of an occupied city or under Russian fire, flee the horror of war. It's also a place where the wounded who have been evacuated from the front are cared for: at Uzhhorod hospital, the rooms are filled with soldiers who are being treated as best they can, with a view to their return to civilian life...
In the summer of 2023, the Ukrainians seem to have emerged from the state of shock into which the Russian aggression plunged them in February 2022. The ceremonies and celebrations for Independence on 24 August were more joyful.
They all say they have no choice: fighting is a duty, resisting the Russian invaders has given them a new lease of life.