By: Emilio Gutierrez
Content warning: mentions of war.
On February 22, 2014, the Ukrainian parliament voted to remove then-president, Viktor Yanukovych, from office in response to months of Euromaidan protests over government corruption. Not soon after, armed insurgency at the hands of Russian-backed separatists broke out along the Donbas region of Ukraine in retaliation, marking the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
It is in these first few months of the war where we find the Klondike protagonists. Written and directed by Ukrainian filmmaker, Maryna Er Gorbach, Klondike tells the story of a pregnant wife (Oxana Cherkashyna) and her husband (Sergiy Shadrin), Irka and Tolik, struggling to respond to the encroaching presence of the Donbas war in their homeland.
Seeing its initial release only a month before Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022, the film serves less as a direct response to the current Russian escalation and more as a sullen foreshadowing of the preceding years of persisting conflict and pain. Choosing to take on a bottom-up perspective of the conflict, the film places its attention less on the war at-large and more on its characters’ complicated reactions to the anxieties of forceful occupation. It does a great job in showcasing intricate, flawed characters who grapple with the war as much as they do with each other. Both Cherkashyna and Shadrin do a great job as main leads, providing an invaluable service by filling the film’s long, solemn shots with intimate worries and frustrations.
Although Klondike mainly focuses on interpersonal tensions, the film still feels successful at expressing the foreboding tension of the Donbas war. The shadow of war and separatist rebels creeps in, imposing its presence with firearms and empty promises. The film’s focus lies more on the threat and aftermath of violence rather than the violence itself, allowing the depiction of the war to feel genuine: ambiguous, undefined. However, it doesn’t shy away from violence altogether, and the few sparks of unfeeling brutality provide its share of dread to the environment. The film definitely succeeds at using characters’ interpersonal conflict to reflect tensions in Ukraine during the war. Yaryk (Oleg Scherbina), the brother-in-law from Kyiv, highlights this. His presence in the film becomes a point of contention for Tolik. Through this tension, Er Gorbach explores how even pride can become a source of conflict, and how that conflict is dwarfed by the brutality of the active war.
Another stand-out highlight of Klondike is its incredibly unique and motivated visual style. Filmed mainly using still-standing long shots dotted with slow pans and zooms, Er Gorbach is able to use the camera to transform the landscape into a particularly cold and stationary one. This stillness, however, is contrasted by the film’s meticulous movement, which is constantly seen in foreground and background, as well as within and outside the frame. This stylistic disparity in between stillness and movement makes shots feel restless and oppressive, removing the power characters tend to have over the camera. Its gorgeous cinematography adds an additional layer of melancholy to the stark visual style with a smooth and balanced colour palette.
2022 was a year already packed to the brim with incredible films, but Klondike stands out as one of the more visually compelling films I’ve seen. Alongside its sullen yet intricate storytelling and its amazing soundtrack, Klondike certainly ended up being one of 2022’s highlights for me.
I would not personally describe Klondike as a widely accessible film given its slow and subtle nature. Yet, if that’s something you can come to appreciate, Klondike reveals itself to be a distinctly mesmerizing achievement in both filmmaking and political artistry which will be hard to forget.
Currently, it’s only available to watch on Ukrainian Netflix, which can be accessed with the help of a VPN. If you don’t have access to a VPN, be sure to follow the film on Instagram @klondike.movie as a wider release has been slated for later this year.
