In the new episode of “Real Cinema,” Vitaly Mansky walks through Bishkek with writer and filmmaker Daniel Berger. What is Berger’s film “Someone Else’s War” about, and why do young people from Kyrgyzstan end up fighting in the war in Ukraine? They talk about loss, poverty, parental grief, and the price of someone else’s war. How is Bishkek different from present-day Russia? How has Berger’s life changed since he moved there, and is it still possible to pursue independent creative work in Russia today? Their conversation explores freedom, the state, society, the Russian-speaking community, and the clash of different mentalities.

The documentary chronicles stories of two Kyrgyzstan families whose sons perished serving in a war against Ukraine. Their grief warps the world to the point where nothing makes sense – manual activities have their own logic that might offer a salve when nothing else will. But every this action seems to help parents forget that the death of their sons in someone else’s war was in vain.