Two Ukrainian teenagers and one Russian begin adult lives in France, where war divides and loneliness connects them.

Two Ukrainian teenagers and one Russian, aged seventeen and eighteen, meet in France after Russia’s war against Ukraine uproots their lives. Still dependent on their families, they must begin building adult lives in a country that is not their own. Ruslan clings to his anger at everything Russian as a way of preserving his Ukrainian identity. Dmytro works on a construction site, hiding his fear for his parents in Ukraine behind a stream of jokes. Orfey, whose family opposed the war and fled Russia, struggles with an unfamiliar language and the feeling of belonging nowhere.

As their lives intertwine, loneliness and the need for connection bring them closer. Safe from the fighting but still shaped by it, can they find a friendship that reaches across the divisions of war?

With remarkable cinematography and an intimate, sensitive gaze, director Anastasiia Vedenskaia draws us into the emotional lives of three young men caught between adolescence and adulthood. Attentive to their vulnerability, humour and longing to belong, Three Comrades offers a fresh perspective on a generation seeking understanding while facing a future overshadowed by war.

Marianna Kaat