Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2022)

Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2022). Luxembourg, Luxembourg: Directed by Antonio Lukich. With Amil Nasirov, Ramil Nasirov, Nataliya Gnitiy, Lyudmyla Sachenko. Mykola and VasyA go in search of their father after they come to know that he is dying in Luxembourg, who left them when they were children. Kolya considers him a hero, while Vasya thinks he is a scoundrel.

“Years ago, a Ukrainian woman went to Bosnia, where she found a gangster husband, returned home to her small town, and had twin boys. Eventually he left town and she remarried, though there seemed to be a legacy of respect for the father that followed the boys.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eYears later, the boys have taken very different paths. Kolya is a bus driver, drug dealer, and petty thief. Vasily is an upright, heavy-on-duty policeman who tries to look out for Kolya. Both are married with one child, and both are a disappointment to their family. Kolya receives a call from the Ukrainian consulate in Luxembourg, informing himthat their father had an accident and is dying, and the brothers (and their mother) debate whether to rush to his side. Vasily and mother worry that their father may just leave troubles and debts, while Kolya dreams of riches.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlready in trouble with the bus company for an incident caused by his short temper, Kolya gets into further trouble by knocking down a woman with his bus, impeding his plan to go to Luxembourg. The brothers eventually work something out.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFrom the CBC news story, this film was shot before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the director had to return to Ukraine to complete post-production. The theme of growing up with an absent father is coincidentally timely, given the diaspora of Ukrainian refugee families of women-and-children. This is the only film from Ukraine at the Toronto International Film Festival, and I suspect could be next yearu0026#39;s Ukrainian entry for the Foreign Language Film Oscar.”