Songs of Slow Burning Earth

Over the course of two years and at various locations—both close to and far from the frontline—director Olha Zhurba collected footage for this powerful, personal, and metaphysical audiovisual album of the war in Ukraine.

We see the invasion itself—the first explosions, evacuations to safer places, and convoys transporting relief supplies—and the absorption of war into everyday life, with schoolchildren routinely making their way to bomb shelters and women looking for their dead husbands at the morgue. These scenes are accompanied by a jarring soundscape evoking everything from panic to mute resignation, along with heart-wrenching audio clips from emergency calls.

The centerpiece is a hushed scene lasting several minutes that was filmed from a convoy transporting dead bodies, the route lined with local people kneeling at the side of the road. With patience, respect and an artist’s eye, the director captures the fear and disillusionment, the rage, the fighting spirit and the hope of a population under fire.