After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, independent journalism inside Russia was almost destroyed by the state. Many media teams and journalists found themselves scattered across Europe and the post-Soviet republics. How do they now structure their lives? How to work in a profession directly tied to the land? Is it the motherland that threw them out, or did they abandon it? What is next? Filming location was in several countries where a significant part of the Russian emigration had gathered: in Latvia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan. In the center of the film are 10 characters, all of them reporters, their work was firmly, inevitably tied to the ground or, as journalists say, “the field.” Having left the country, they found themselves essentially alienated. The conversations with the reporters form a polyphonic dialogue. How do you relate to the people who were semi-violently mobilized for the war in Ukraine? Where do you need to be right now – in Russia or outside it? What is your maximum willingness to take personal risks?

In September 2022, when mobilization was announced in Russia, residents of the Chukotka village of Egvekinot Maxim Teyunaut and Sergei Nechaev decided to escape so that they would not be sent to war in Ukraine. The closest place where you could escape on a small fishing boat was St. Lawrence Island, which belongs to the state of Alaska. In the USA, Teyunaut and Nechaev asked for political asylum. They spent three months in a migration prison. Baptist church pastor Roman Mitin, who comes from a Ukrainian family of Baptists who were persecuted for their faith in Soviet times, vouched for them. In the nineties they emigrated to the USA.

On May 9, at the Immortal Regiment procession in the mountain village of Mizur in North Ossetia, local residents came out with portraits of their warring relatives. One of the posters featured a photograph of an officer who died in March in Ukraine. 33-year-old captain Aslan Dzantiev was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage. On May 9, his family arranged a memorial ceremony, neighbors and relatives, according to the traditional Ossetian custom, prepared food and lit a candle on the grave of the deceased. In Caucasian families, men and women do not sit down together at the table and grieve differently, men make toasts and behave with restraint, and women cook food and do not hide their grief. Aslan Dzantiev grew up without a father and remained childless, his mother, grandmother and young widow mourn him at home.

The director of the film with three children moves to work in Germany. Lost and disoriented in the alien environment, the children start attending a circus school run by 60-year-old Hanspeter Kurtzhals. This helps them learn German and make friends in Germany. And the story of Hanspeter himself plunges the director into the past and forces him to go in search of circus actress Carmen, from whom only a few photographs of 30 years ago remain. In search of Carmen, who spends the night in a new place every week, cannot read or write, does not have an account in social networks and a permanent phone number, the director traveled 500 kilometers, visited four cities and five federal states of Germany, at a fair, in a stable, in in a beer tent, in a gypsy camp, I heard a dozen incredible stories and drew a large family tree.

The small tourist motor ship "Boris Kustodiev" in summer from early morning until late evening replaces a full-fledged ferry crossing in the ancient city of Tutaev, 40 kilometers from Yaroslavl. There is no bridge between the banks, and the city is divided into two parts. The right bank of Tutaev is considered more developed, the left one is "authentic". It takes less than ten minutes to cross the boat and costs 35 rubles. People on the deck discuss life, prices are different on the two banks, talk about the history of the city, and that in winter they cross the river on ice, and in the off-season, in spring, it is dangerous.

A student, a nurse, a former loan officer and a former athlete are all strip dancers. Girls chose this profession to earn money. However, it is a complex world with complex rules. The owner of a strip club is also a difficult profession. The head of the Moscow institution Golden Girls Lucky Lee is a bright character, a video blogger, a fighter for world peace. To become the owner of a strip club, he gave up banking.

Two young teachers arrive in a small provincial town with dreams of changing the school system. Katya and Vasya are not even thirty, they graduated from the best metropolitan universities. They are not professional teachers, but they love children and really want to sow what is reasonable, kind, and eternal. Therefore, they get a job at an ordinary local school and from the very beginning declare to each other that they do not want to scold children or punish them with deuces, they do not want to teach them to cram and walk in formation. Their goal is to show students how to think and create independently. The reality turns out to be much more complicated. Half of the children in this school after the 9th grade are going to vocational schools, they have little interest in creativity, they go to school like hard labor. Most teachers are not going to deviate from the traditions of Soviet education. Will the characters in the film retain their enthusiasm? Will they be able to find contact with difficult teenagers? Will they stay next year?

The stories of people who have been tortured by the police and the lawyers who are trying to help them.

The flooding in Tulun at the end of June 2019 claimed the lives of 25 people (with 8 more missing) and destroyed hundreds of homes. Now locals and volunteers are clearing the ruins and rescuing homeless pets.

Shies is a station on the border of the Arkhangelsk region and the Komi Republic, where the Russian authorities decided to build a landfill for garbage removal from Moscow. Local residents protested and set up a camp near the station, trying to interfere with the construction. The confrontation lasts for many months, sometimes turning into clashes with guards and riot police deployed to Shies.

Anatoly Ganne is sixty two years old. For thirty three years he’d been in prison. During his life Ganne followed thieves' concepts: not to have any family and home - so that there was nothing to take away. Now he is settled in Moscow, got married and has a son. But Moscow authorities are trying to take away his house.

On the outskirts of Donetsk Petrovna, a shell flew into the house. Everything was blown to smithereens, two washing machines were broken, Masha the parrot was rushing around the cage, there was a tragedy in the family. The sons of Petrovna, laughing and swearing, pull out the remaining junk from the destroyed hut and transport the family to the old Soviet bomb shelter, which has been preserved since Soviet times. And they still consider themselves lucky: “The main thing is that everyone is alive.” On the other side of the front line, on the outskirts of Ukrainian-controlled Svetlodarsk, lives a very similar Petrovna of the same age. She was lucky - the shell hit the neighbors' house, and her barn only burned down. She watches the video, which shows the first Petrovna, and sympathizes: “Everything is the same as we have.” In the third family, in Gorlovka, everything is in order so far. They are already accustomed, just a little, to hide in the basement and live in constant expectation that a shell will fly to them. There's a pry bar in the basement in case the door gets blocked. The film-reportage shows the war in Ukraine on both sides of the front, people separated by an invisible line that suddenly marked the once united land.