In August 2022, the Costa Compagnie conducted research in Eastern Ukraine. In Kharkiv and on the nearby frontline, they interviewed four women who volunteered for the armed struggle against the Russian attack and the autocratic system that came with it. The examination of the material poses the question: What would we do?

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Zhenya is a human rights lawyer and now a drone pilot in a reconnaissance unit. Helena is a documentary film director and now a medic in a combat unit. Oksana and Tatjana, two press officers, report from the front with their cameras.

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Ukrainian actress Anna Mrachkovska deals with the interviews and creates an intermedial monologue, including her own biography and refugee experience, which attempts to approach this radical present in a performative and cinematic way.

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What values and systems are defended in Ukraine beyond one’s own life and country? Would one stake one’s life to fight for democracy and freedom? How does it feel to perform a theatre monologue about these questions 2,000 km away in Berlin, while friends and relatives at home are involved in warfare?