Cuba and Alaska + Jamni + Q&A

A raw and intimate profile of two Ukrainian Medics from the frontlines of the war, CUBA & ALASKA captures the funny, the arcane, the painfully tragic and surprisingly warm healing that make up a soldier’s emotional journey during wartime.

Best-friends “Cuba” & “Alaska”, wisecracking medics on Ukraine’s frontline, live the same battlefield story as all soldiers: slowly losing connections with friends, family and their previous lives the longer they stand up for Ukraine.

Body cams, cell phones, and the interviewer’s camera fill in the story between the constant danger, bouts of survivors’ guilt, and a longing to ‘go back’ – to return to the life they had when dreams were still possible. But with war so deeply rooted in them, can the two ever go back to the life they used to know?

Fuelled by the enormously contagious laughter from Cuba, and the dark black humour of Alaska, the two best friends face down the unknown together with a warrior fierceness befitting Thelma & Louise.

Shifting between archival film and present-day footage of Pasotra’s mother and the landscape of Wales, JAMNI is a poetic and multi-layered meditation on class, agency and the healing ability of the natural world, woven together through an original sonic composition.