07/09/2024 - VENICE 2024: This modest, effective film by Zhanna Ozirna shows that you really can’t escape war, not even in your own home

Two people in love, building a life together. Many films end like that, but not this one. Here, happiness is just the beginning. In Honeymoon [+see also:
interview: Zhanna Ozirna
film profile], premiering in Venice’s Biennale College Cinema, Ukrainian director Zhanna Ozirna plays along with a couple that’s still in the early stages: everything’s fun, everything’s exciting and, God, everything is sexy. “Tarzan found his Jane,” laughs Taras (Roman Lutskyi), approaching the giggly Olya (Ira Nirsha). They are silly, endearing – probably even annoying to some people. But they don’t get to enjoy it for very long, and it’s not because the usual everydayness kicks in. They don’t get to enjoy it, because it’s taken away. After celebrating their new step with friends, with half-deflated balloons still floating around, they wake up to the sounds of explosions. They haven’t even unpacked all the boxes.

Talking to Cineuropa, Ozirna commented on an interesting, if troubling, trend at film festivals: it seems there’s less and less space for films about Ukraine. Especially docs, because there have been so many since the invasion started. When no one can afford to make fiction films, what do you do? You get inventive. Like she did.

Honeymoon makes good use of whatever was available. Its single location makes it feel like a thriller: the claustrophobia mounts, and so does the paranoia. This couple, stuck in their flat because the Russians decided to set up a headquarters in their building, have to pretend they’re not there. Chances are, others around them are doing it, too.

The stakes are high: one broken glass or a wrong step ­could immediately alert their new neighbours. They need to be quiet, all the time, just like in that 2018 John Krasinski blockbuster A Quiet Place. At one point, they barely know what’s happening outside of their home any more. But Ozirna doesn’t just crawl into a dark corner and come out completely insane. There’s hope here, because there’s love. And trust us – this sentence is way sappier than the rest of the film.

Also, there’s no sudden transformation into superheroes: Taras and Olya are not ready for this kind of struggle or this kind of fear, and they know it. They are normal, but normal doesn’t prepare you for war. This couple has no clue how to behave, only too aware of what would happen to them if they were ever found out. Still, they have each other. “In the wardrobe, in the corridor, in the bathroom.” Sometimes it has to do.

Honeymoon was produced by Ukraine’s Toy Cinema and is being sold internationally by Reason8 Films.