DISTANT BARKING OF DOGS, THE

Oleg, 10, lives with his grandmother near the front lines in the Donbass conflict, in Ukraine. While mortar blasts often echo through the air and many residents have already fled, Oleg and his grandmother are sticking it out. The boy waits for the war’s end while playing with his cousins, but sometimes children’s games mirror the violence of the adult world… By staying close to his protagonists, Simon Lereng Wilmont succeeds in filming the conflict from a child’s perspective. He does not take political sides; rather, by focusing on private drama, he reveals the ravages of war in their saddest, most universal form. Magnificently filmed and observed, this portrait of a troubled childhood is heartbreaking and essential. (ACO)