Fathers by Blood 2024

Directed by Vasilisa Varvarina

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.