Company of Steel

The story in this film describes the truth about trauma experienced during the war and what it does to a human condition. It reveals that it's so much more than extreme pain to the physical, mental and emotional body.

Unable to go back to the life as they lived before, it forces to find meaning and to coin a new identity, because the old one is not enough to handle everything that happened.

The film has three protagonists, code names 'Shakhta', 'Dancer' and 'Potter', all part of the same regiment. The main arena is the Russia-Ukrainian War and one of the most important events was the Shyrokynske offensive operation, where the protagonists suffered losses that changed them forever. It's very important to realize that they aren't professional soldiers, they were volunteers with no military experience, who just wanted to serve their country. This film shows how a normal, non-military person, like us, went through such a horrifying experience.

The storyline of Dancer talks about post-traumatic growth, how a man can be shattered down and rebuild himself stronger, to serve others. Shakhta's is a story of becoming a businessman in a profession that reveals to be an atonement, out of the guilt of surviving, while others didn't and perhaps even because of him. And Potter's fight is about desperate attempt to prevent the war from taking his free, joyful spirit away. He is cling to his innocence, which the loss or change of him is yet to confront.

We follow them during their military operations and continue when they come back home, to the world that didn't change, not as much as they did. They are different people now, and they struggle to find themselves in the world that just doesn't understand how it is to have seen the violence, to follow precise objectives day after day, to make peace with their own death and to feel the pain of losing brothers in army. Nobody can empathize with their shame of living on, while their friends will remain forever on the battlefield.