What’s your superpower? I am Ukrainian

What makes this documentary so powerful is that there is no narration – aside from those few scenes when Anna talks about herself – and this way we feel that we see the truth and we are almost part of the story because of the close insight to her life. The movie is „just” a pure observation of Anna’s everyday life, so the viewer just goes with the story as the events unfold. The film has no definite structure, there is not really a clearly defined beginning and end of the story. We could say that the documentary seems a little bit unorganized but is it a problem if it’s not well-organized? Even if we sometimes lose track of the events or we just get confused in the story, it doesn’t mean that the movie doesn’t work well. The film is about a woman who does so many things in her everyday life, that she barely has time for herself, so if the movie feels a little chaotic, that’s because Anna’s life is chaotic too.

As the movie uses observational mode[1], the viewer basically just follows the actions of the protagonist and because there are no additional information like narration or text commentary, we only know what we see. Because of the movie’s observational style some might say that it lacks depth, but the story we see is very strong on its own without any underlying meaning. The protagonist’s struggles with her everyday problems are engaging enough to capture the viewer’s attention – it is truly moving to see someone fighting for a greater cause.

There are a few outstanding scenes that bring the viewer really close to Anna and her emotions, and this really works with the observational style. The movie’s most sensitive part is when the protagonist talks about her mother’s death. This scene is also a key to understanding Anna’s motivation for her professions. One other important scene is when the protagonist and her colleagues go into the flood to save the stray animals even if they risk their own safety and health – here we understand how difficult and dangerous their work is.

It may seem that the movie covers too many topics, but they are not independent of each other, and besides being part of Anna's life, everything we see is connected to each other. The presentation of the training has an important role because it shows Anna's perseverance and vocation, which she also needs when saving animals. Her work with the disabled boy indicates that she selflessly helps both people and animals, overriding her own interests. The war situation is also connected to all of this. In addition to creating a basic situation and basic environment for the movie’s theme, it can also be connected to Anna's endurance. As we can read on her T-shirt in one scene: „What’s your superpower? I am Ukrainian.”