Silent Flood

For decades, members of a pacifist, traditional religious community have been living in isolation along the Dniester River in western Ukraine. Their peaceful existence has often been disrupted by the fluctuating levels of the river, but since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, their way of life has come under pressure from a far greater threat.

The first part of Silent Flood shows beautiful, poetic images of their idyllic surroundings. The farmers, who split from the Amish in the distant past, work the land with horse and cart, their children play or do laundry in the river, and in the evening families dine by candlelight—there is no electricity. The film then leaves the village, following a special shipment to the front.

When the lens shifts from the community to the Ukrainian soldiers longing for home, we see how, under the pressure of war, the two worlds converge. The peace-loving farmers find a way of their own to contribute. Without ever showing a soldier in combat, the film offers a unique perspective on a country and its people at war.