“Since the full-scale invasion, I have experienced what it’s like when a language becomes contaminated,” says Dutch director Aliona van der Horst of her new film, about a bi-lingual Ukrainian couple living in exile in Berlin, and the strain placed on their 45-year marriage. “Russian has become the language of the former coloniser of Ukraine: the language of Putin, the perpetrators, the murderers.”
As the film’s synopsis describes, “the war turns their words into a battleground, forcing them to choose between loyalty, identity and each other.”
Producer Ilja Roomans of Dutch Docmakers elaborates on the 99/55-minute project, co-produced by Orwa Nyrabia and Diana El Jeiroudi of No Nation Films, and slated for delivery in late 2028.
”The Return is an intimate invitation rather than a conventional informational experience. It places the audience metaphorically at a ‘kitchen table,’ creating a calm, reflective space where conversation unfolds naturally,” Roomans tells BDE. “The tone is warm, contemplative and gentle, encouraging viewers to engage as one would during an evening of meaningful dialogue about a very current topic: the war in Ukraine in particular and war and refugees in general, and the meaning of language.”
“Rather than presenting a war story or immediate political narrative, the film approaches its subject from a deliberate distance, allowing space for reflection, nuance, and multiple perspectives,” she continues. “It foregrounds human interdependence, emphasizing that life continues even amid hardship, and that meaning often emerges within, rather than despite, difficulty. At its heart, the documentary offers a space to connect past experiences with new perspectives and to encounter insights that may be unexpected.”
The Return has strong financial backing from the Netherlands Film Fund (NL), NPO-fonds (NL), Connected Foundation (NL) and InMaat Foundation (USA). Dutch distribution will be handled by Cinema Delicatessen, while Netherlands broadcast rights are agreed with HUMAN.
“Visually, the film transcends strict observation,” Roomans stresses. “Mark’s internal world is externalized through sparse, hand-drawn animation and lines of poetry that physically manifest on screen – Russian, Yiddish and German letters dissolving into the cityscapes of Berlin. These poetic interventions clash with the gritty reality of their daily survival: the fight against Mark’s cancer, the absurdity of bureaucracy, and the surrealism of air raid sirens interrupting a jazz concert.”
Filmmaker van der Horst is responsible for the multi award-winning Gerlach (2023), Turn Your Body to the Sun(2021) and Love Is Potatoes (2017), not to mention the sublime medium-length Boris Ryzhy (2008).
“Aliona is a remarkable filmmaker who doesn’t rush into choosing her subjects or carrying out her projects,” producer Roomans agrees. “With great care and tireless perseverance, she keeps at it until the film becomes exactly what she hoped it would be. Many of Aliona’s films explore the search for what has been lost and what has been preserved, with the theme of identity recurring frequently – a theme that also plays an important role in her own life. Aliona consistently transforms her cinematic explorations into poetic, sensitive, and accessible films that often reach a wide audience. She is an innovative documentary filmmaker and one of the best that the Netherlands has to offer.”
“Her strength lies in the way she tells a seemingly small story and manages to imbue it with a universal human dimension,” Rooman continues. “[Turn Your Body to the Sun is] a personal story of a single soldier that represents the history of nearly 6 million Russian prisoners of war, and in Love Is Potatoes she uses the legacy of her mother’s small family home to tell the story of the famine in Russia and life under Stalin. In The Return, she will use Mark and Alla’s return to tell a broader story about displacement, war, flight, home, homesickness, and language.”
