Four women come from war-torn Mariupol. Svitlana Lishchynska the filmmaker is one of them; as such, the story is often told through her eyes. This makes the film auto-ethnographic in nature. To tell her story she mixes archive footage from the last few decades with more recent images after the Russian invasion. The other three women are her daughter Alexandra (Sasha), her granddaughter Stefania and her mother Valentina (Valay).
The film-maker’s daughter was raised by her grandmother in Mariupol. In search of career opportunities, Svitlana Lishchynska moved to Kyiv in the 1990s and ended up working in television. There is no explanation for this decision; it treats the feelings of abandonment and lovelessness felt by women in her family as a matter of fate. The proximity between Soviet Union and now Russia isn’t straightforward either perhaps due to many trans-generational ruptures and marriage breakdowns or lack of strong male presence within their lives the family does not feel like they belong anywhere. President Putin’s macho image still has some appeal among Ukrainians, especially those living near Mariupol.
There are very intimate moments: young Sasha sings Russian hymn on Russian TV before getting stopped abruptly by grandma; sasha with stefania visits svitlana at kiev but suddenly changes their mind; sasha likes russians and feels like one of them, but changes mind after city gets bombed; unimaginable damage done to mariupol shown in pictures; then we see her in London she moved there on sponsorship visa scheme; ukrainian who considered herself russian before gets irony of fate when using special status given only to ukrainian refugees leaving home country for uk. A comfortable house appears to have been found somewhere around British capital. They invite mum & granny over maybe even to stay? But things aren’t going so well after all. Sasha and Stefania begin questioning their identity, choices and worldview as they start learning English,
Language is one of A Bit of a Stranger’s most interesting aspects. Svitlana wants to speak Ukrainian it’s her chosen language in Kiyv, even for fitness classes; national news are Ukrainian too. But back in Mariupol her family watches Russian TV, which is also the language she communicates with them in. To complicate things further, little Stefania does not see Ukrainian as her mother tongue. For viewers who may not be familiar with this difference between two Slavonic languages subtitles could have been marked (e.g. colour code for Russian & another one for Ukrainian).
Svitlana takes her mum to Warsaw so that the elderly woman can catch a flight to London before returning herself back home in Kiyv. Having said that I am fully aware of my own safety in London than here, tells us how much she loves Ukraine despite its increasing dangers brought about by war. Another brave film contributing towards Russo-Ukrainian War discourse. The destruction caused by war is always followed by poverty and collective psyche breakdowns”.
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