The Ukrainian embassy in Berlin falls silent as the trailer for the documentary film Traces plays
The film tells the story of six women who survived Russian captivity
They report on torture and sexual violence. The protagonists are also present at the event in Berlin
One of them is Irina. She talks about imprisonment, abuse, and trying to preserve her dignity
The film does not show explicit depictions of violence. Instead, the women return to places
from their past, to houses that are partly destroyed, to walls with bullet holes, to
devastated gardens. There they tell their stories. Director Alisa Kovalenko deliberately chose this form
And when I was in Kherson region it was after the occupation and I also saw these traces of this war traces of russian aggression everywhere it was like minefields burning fields like destroyed houses but also wounded people but
there are some wounds which were out like we can see visible and invisible and i started to think
about how we can build this actually coexistence of these visual traces and invisible traces
On the sidelines of the Berlinale, several civil society representatives at the embassy
are supporting the women's initiative called SEMA, which fights against sexual violence
as a weapon of war and supports those affected. Despite the gravity of the reports, there is also a sense of solidarity
The women see their voices as a sword against the violent acts of Russian soldiers