Volunteers of Donbass

CHAPTER ONE

Salad-colored volunteer jackets stand out with bright spots against the gray ruins of Mariupol. Today, there are four of them, volunteer searchers: SERGEY (20), YEKATERINA (19), ALINA, and YAN. Like for the past eight months, their task is to search for missing people and restore lost connections between loved ones. The quartet in bright jackets and with food kits in bags enters the entrance. Explosions are constantly heard from the side of the sea and in parts of the city. The young people stop at the landing of the second floor. Yekaterina knocks on the door.

EKATERINA

We are looking for Lyubov Ivanovna Pugachyova.

LYUBOV IVANOVNA

(confused)

That's me.

EKATERINA

Oleg and Elena are looking for you, there has been no contact with you for a long time.

LYUBOV IVANOVNA

Those are my tenants!

EKATERINA

We will record you in a short video and give you this food kit.

LYUBOV IVANOVNA

Please, come in. And why are you avoiding me so much?

SERGEY

Many.

ALINA

We try to process about ten requests for finding people in just one day.

LYUBOV IVANOVNA

On March 2nd, the communication was cut off in Mariupol, and we were left without information about each other. Everyone sees a terrible picture on television, for those who still have power, and no one knows what happened to their family. They try to call you on the phone, but it's turned off. The first thought is that you've died.

YAN

We found a colossal number of people who simply had no opportunity to inform their relatives that they were alive.

LYUBOV IVANOVNA

How did you become volunteers? Are you locals?

SERGEY

Not all.

ALINA

Katya is local.

EKATERINA

I am 29 years old. I have lived all my life in Mariupol, in the Kalmyk district. I worked as a teacher in a kindergarten. On February 24th, not a single child was brought to my group. That's when my life took a different turn. During the storming of Mariupol, like other residents, I hid from shelling in the basement, had little food, and, of course, was without communication.

LYUBOV IVANOVNA

And I stayed at home at my own risk. My legs are almost not working. I sat hungry for three days. Thank you, my neighbor sometimes brought food and water.

Lyubov Ivanovna starts crying and covers her face with her hand.

LYUBOV IVANOVNA

And then I looked out the window and saw her sniper shot by the column. – She sighs deeply. How did you become a volunteer?

A month earlier

The parents come to the common changing room to pick up their children. The children get dressed.

ARTEM

Goodbye, Aunt Katya.

EKATERINA

(Smiling)

Goodbye, Artem.

ARTEM’S MOTHER

What was his behavior like today?

EKATERINA

Like all the boys.

LENOCKA

Goodbye, Aunt Katya.

EKATERINA

(Smiling)

See you tomorrow, Lenocka.

BOY

Goodbye.

GIRL

Goodbye.

Ekaterina remains alone in the changing room. She takes off her white robe and puts on her outerwear. She turns off the light and exits into the corridor. She activates the alarm system with a remote control and steps outside. She locks the entrance door and heads towards the residential buildings.

Ekaterina enters the territory of her courtyard. In the center of the yard stands military armored vehicles with the symbols of the Ukrainian army. Local civilians are gathered around it, expressing their outrage.

WOMAN