Director Julia Loktev follows a handful of independent Russian journalists forced to flee their country after the invasion of Ukraine in this follow-up to last year's 'Part I.'
If part one of director Julia Loktev’s sprawling and essential 12-hour chronicle of journalism under fire concluded, like any good piece of serial storytelling, with a veritable cliffhanger, part two covers the long and painful aftermath following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
By that point, we’ve come to know the handful of independent reporters — most of them women accused of being “foreign agents” by Putin’s government — whom Loktev documented during the tense months leading up to the war, showing how they held fast to their beliefs while their country began to crumble around them.
In the second half of this epic study of persecution and resistance, we watch these courageous, resourceful young journos deal with forced exile, scattering across several countries and continents as the Russian state continues to pursue them for bogus offenses like spreading “fake news.” Given what they already dealt with back home, it’s no surprise they exhibit a fair amount of sangfroid and journalistic integrity as they wheel their carry-on luggage from one airport or Airbnb to another, trying to find a place to live and especially to work, which they continue to do while the conflict rages on.
