Blue skies and cerulean waters dominated her childhood, but as the Chechen–Russian conflicts erupted into full-blown wars during the 1990s, she experienced terror, bloodshed, and death. Sandu pours these traumatic memories into her feature debut, a hybrid documentary portrait that doubles as cinematic exorcism, where the demons of the past are transformed into striking collages and vignettes. These images – both childlike and mythological – are accompanied by Sandu’s diaristic voiceover. The childlike capacity of a young girl to navigate her painful circumstances with a sense of wonder has hardened into jaded acceptance. Sandu frames this loss of innocence not merely as an individual tragedy, but a collective one also.