The glaring yellow lights of the metro station have become a substitute for daylight for 12-year-old Nikita and hundreds of others. For a month, they have served as a reminder of the dangers that loom outside. Nikita lives with his mother in the bomb shelter and this is where he sees the doctor, does his homework, fiddles with his phone for hours. While forgetting his past life, he tries not to lose his childhood. On days when light is synonymous with the darkest war, he meets his peer Vika: maybe it’s not too late?

What if war deprives us of the chance to see the world as children; perhaps also as human beings? The metonymy of the gaze is crucial in this film: the observing camera reminds us of it in the visual lines, Nikita’s mother sees her son’s mental health suffer, whereas all the people we meet in the film are confronted by the choice to “not see” in order to keep living. The hybrid documentary by long-time creative partners Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarčík was just screened at Giornate degli Autori at the Venice Film Festival. Photophobia was made shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the film crew spent several months in the Kharkiv metro station. The city has since become a symbol of an existential struggle and the Ukrainians’ loss of a peaceful daily existence.