"Ghosts in Branches"by Valeriy Puzik

A small group of Ukrainian soldiers shelters in the remains of a hut on the front lines of the war. Some are young, some are older; they are ordinary men, who have left behind ordinary lives to do something none of them ever imagined: fight a war. In their daily struggle to survive they joke, gripe, fantasize about distant love ones, fend off boredom, hunger, loneliness, deadly shelling and drone attacks, go on night raids, and endure the constant thought of death: not if it will come, but simply when. In this haunting, beautiful piece, Ukrainian poet, writer, and filmmaker Valeriy Puzik takes a gently ironic view of deadly events: grimly comic, deeply humane, injecting lovely surreal fantasies that express a longing for peace, seeking shards of light and sources of hope in the grimmest of situations.