A distant future. As all resources on Earth are depleted, a nuclear energy crisis is in full swing, and radiation annihilates living, life – if it can be called that – goes on, weirdly enough. Andriy, a long-haul galactic trucker from Western Ukraine, works for the largest nuclear waste disposal company in Eastern Europe. It’s a typical day on his humdrum four-year route to Callisto, one of Jupiter’s moons: on board he has a gym, a kitchen, a lounge, and an android named Maksym, whose sense of humour he is still trying to adapt to his own. Soon, Andriy sees apocalyptic flames on Earth and realises he may be one of the very few survivors of the planet that was once his home. In the deep darkness of the universe, Andriy’s ship drifts, and on the comms he hears a woman’s voice…

As the devastating war launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine continues, Ukrainian director Ostrikov does not turn away from humanity. The film was completed during the full-scale invasion and astonishes with its technical finesse and intimacy. The romantic drama is wearing a spacesuit of science fiction, ecocriticism and space travel, resonating with Jonze’s Her (2013), and the protagonist – the sad clown – is captivated by a voice speaking French. Screened at a number of prestigious festivals – Toronto, Sitges, Austin’s Fantastic Fest and others, earning several audience awards, this Ukrainian “space odyssey of loneliness” of the 21st century is a bittersweet, yet smile-inducing debut from Ostrikov. It reminds us of our deep desire to feel truly alive and human, at the same time reflecting the conditions of wartime: isolation, watching an all-encompassing tragedy unfold from afar, and the piercing realisation that in our darkest moments we never want to be alone.