Nazi-occupied Crimea, 1944. A boy named Itzhak turns to Saide Arifova, a local Tatar Muslim woman, for help, explaining that he and a group of other Jewish orphans are hiding from the Nazis. Arifova faces a moral dilemma: should she try to help them or save herself by refusing? Despite the impending danger, she decides to protect the children by hiding them in plain sight, and disguising them as Tatars and adopting them into the local community.
Acting
Yatsenko's restrained grief hits like a gut punch.
Production
Crimean locations carry 80 years of buried history.
Director
Akhtem Seitablaiev
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Seitablaiev is Crimean Tatar himself; his grandfather also disappeared in Stalin's 1944 deportation.
The film barely existed outside Ukraine until 2022, when Russia's annexation made Crimean Tatar stories suddenly urgent globally.
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