Volhynia

Volhynia is both a name referring to a historic border region between Poland, Ukraine and Belarus, and a byword for a series of brutal massacres occurring between 1943-1945. Polish auteur Wojtek Smarzowski turns his misanthropic eye to this disorienting period of history, exploring the region's chaotic descent into hell through the will to survive of a young Ukrainian farm girl. It makes for a chilling and graphically violent account of the ugly growth of nationalism. (Edinburgh International Film Festival)