even if they are loyal to the regime, with exclusive, intimate access, this film by melanie ouigley,tenisheva and evan williams reveals the story of russian women trying to find their sons, husbands and brothers who've gone missing fighting in ukraine. filmed by a team of russian film—makers at the romb independent media group, the producers carefully navigated access, security and legal issues at a time of ever—tightening official control. because these women are also victims. while russian public support for the war remains ostensibly high, sevrinovsky sees a clear distinction between the views of ukrainian and russian service families. in ukraine, the picture for them is quite clear, because they are defending their country. and for russia, it's very hard for any mother to admit that her son gave his life in an unjust war. so they're heavily tortured by this situation. the judges noted the extreme risks taken by the team to tell this story, and said that the ultimate success of the film lay in their ability to build trusting relationships with the mothers and wives who went on cam

with exclusive, intimate access, this film by melanie ouigley, vladimir sevrinovsky, oksana serbinovaory of russian women trying to find their sons, husbands and brothers who've gone missing fighting in ukraine. filmed by a team of russian film—makers at the romb independent media group, the producers carefully navigated access, security and legal issues at a time of ever—tightening official control. nobody else would make a story about these people. even if they are loyal to the regime, is not very convenient to the regime, because it wants to paint a very bright and nice picture. but, of course, people are dying and the whole of russia is full of tragedies such as the tragedy of these women. as the women's searches were hampered by a repressive state bureaucracy, some of them turned to an unlikely source in the search for their loved ones. a lot of our heroes, they called ukrainian soldiers and they asked about their sons and husbands, and the ukrainian soldiers answered them. maybe they thought that maybe if something bad would happen to me, my mother would do the same. and i think