Over the years of the war, thousands of Russian prisoners have been released. Until autumn 2024, they could sign six-month military contracts and receive a presidential pardon. Some of them had been convicted of serious crimes and thus avoided decades in prison. Among those released was the murderer of Kemerovo student Vera Pekhteleva — her parents learned about his freedom only six months later. We filmed the stories of victims whose mothers lost track of the convicted killers and still do not know where they are. We also spoke with two former offenders who returned from the front and are now trying to live as ordinary citizens.

Relatives of soldiers killed in Russia’s war against Ukraine are entitled to compensation — insurance payments, regional grants, and so-called “presidential” benefits. Altogether, the sum amounts to around 14 million rubles, divided among the closest family members. This film tells the stories of three women — Oksana Nazarenko from Karachay-Cherkessia, Natalia Makarova from St. Petersburg, and Anastasia Yudina from the Leningrad region. They are taking the fathers of their sons to court over the payouts, arguing that these men did not raise the children and were absent from their lives after divorce. For us, this is not a film about money, but about the psychology of many Russian families — where the figure of an absent father was replaced by cadet “brotherhood,” and poverty was compensated by the dream of a military career for a child.