In ‘Demons,’ Love and Betrayal Become a Metaphor for the Relationship Between Russia and Ukraine (Exclusive Trailer)
Ukrainian filmmaker Natalka Vorozhbyt's 'Demons' premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, using intimate storytelling to examine the historical conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The work operates simultaneously as a personal drama, a political allegory, and a mystical narrative, creating multiple interpretive layers around the relationship between two nations.
Set in 1990s central Ukraine, the film centers on Slavik, a Russian drifter who claims to be a writer, and Nina, an older Ukrainian woman who welcomes him into her home. Their initial connection transforms into betrayal as the village's dark traditions surface, blending realism with supernatural elements. The director deliberately positions Nina as a symbol of Ukraine's sovereignty following Soviet collapse, while Slavik's role reflects how the Russian-Ukrainian dynamic has historically unfolded.
- Ukrainian director Natalka Vorozhbyt's 'Demons' uses a personal love story turned betrayal to metaphorically explore Russia-Ukraine tensions, premiering at Locarno Film Festival
- The film operates across personal, political, and mystical dimensions, set in 1990s Ukraine with supernatural elements
- Main character Nina symbolizes Ukraine's post-Soviet independence, making her fate central to the film's political allegory
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Since Ukraine's independence in 1991, Ukraine and Russia have shared a long, tangled history rooted in Soviet rule, with debates over sovereignty, identity and betrayal running through their relationship right up to the present war. "Demons" is a new film by Ukrainian director Natalka Vorozhbyt that uses a small, personal story to explore these bigger national tensions, and it has just had its premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, a major showcase for arthouse cinema.
The film is set in a village in central Ukraine in the 1990s, shortly after the Soviet Union broke up. It follows Nina, an older Ukrainian woman, and Slavik, a Russian traveller who says he is a writer and whom she takes into her home. Their relationship, which mixes closeness with deception and local superstition, is intended by the director to stand in symbolically for the wider history between the two countries, with Nina representing Ukraine's independence and Slavik representing Russia's role in that history.
The story matters beyond the cinema world because it offers one artist's interpretation, through drama and folklore rather than direct commentary, of a real and highly sensitive geopolitical relationship that remains at the centre of an ongoing war. Readers coming to this fresh should understand that the film is a work of fiction and allegory, not a historical document, but that its themes are drawn from decades of actual political and cultural friction between Russia and Ukraine.