Memory in Haarlem

In this poignant autobiographical film, filmmaker Vladlena Sandu confronts the traumatic memories of her childhood during the war in Chechnya. Relocating from Crimea to Grozny as a six-year-old, her life was abruptly overshadowed by the 1994 Russian occupation. Years later, Sandu transforms these haunting experiences into art, using a makeshift toy theater where plastic figures reenact the atrocities she witnessed. A visually inventive and deeply moving exploration of memory, war, and the process of overcoming the past.