Atlantída, 2003

Knee-deep in boglands, without contact to the outside world, where every sound contains a potential danger of death and every ally is a possible traitor: the film portrays the exhausting process of escaping to the European Union, illustrating that nobody would decide to undertake such a journey lightly. Though the viewer isn't privy to the couple's background, it becomes clear that Martin and Denisiya are looking for a way out of poverty, unemployment and desperation. Despite the exhaustion and fear, the two stick together, driven by blind hope.

Akin to Plato's sunken island, the truth here is buried deep below the surface; the brief insight provided to the viewer suffices to say that there's more than meets the eye. Emphatic and nuanced performances by Levan Mania and Elizaveta Maximová, the latter also featuring in the SPECIALS programme Belarus in IMITACE/IMITATION, allow the viewer to become attached to the characters, only for them to be mercilessly torn away from us again. DJ