Nadezhda in the Dark

On the longest night of a Berlin winter two women sit side-by-side. Both fled the Soviet Union as children, one from Ukraine, and her girlfriend from Russia.

A thigh shifts, fingers fold in, a shoulder is lowered. Neither speak.

As silence weighs heavy between them, decades of Ukrainian and Russian history resurface, from Yiddish jokes, Kyiv's DIY queer parties and the hidden messages in Russian pop music, to resistance in Odessa, raids in Moscow clubs and the death of their friend.

As the requiem inside the narrator's head expands within the darkness of the room, she asks the all-important question: what does it mean to have hope?