Yuryk

The feature film ‘Yuryk or The Journey Without Touching the Ground’ is based on real events. It tells the story of an 11-year-old boy who shook the entire world, a narrative that should never have unfolded in the 21st century.

In the Russian-held Ukrainian city, an announcement was made that all children found would be taken to Russia, ostensibly to save their lives. The mother of 11-year-old Yuriy, who has already lost her daughter, father, and husband to the conflict, realizes that if the Russians take him away, she will never see her son again. Unable to leave the city due to caring for her ailing grandmother, she makes the most difficult decision of her life to save her only child. She persuades Yuriy to go with volunteers to reach the border with Poland at a specific time, where his relatives from Estonia will meet him. Despite his fear, the boy agrees, driven by his mother’s plea for him to survive, ensuring that ‘if he lives, she will live.’

The child’s journey through the war is fraught with uncertainty. What awaits him on the path to peaceful Europe, and will he be able to fulfill the promise he made to his mother?