A veteran wants to shake hands with his enemies. There's just one devastating problem.
Alexander Nikolaevich is very old. The war turned his whole life upside down. But he does not remember the war, and he does not remember insults, he remembers something completely different. He remembers gestures, hand movements, his hands. He forgave everyone. He is ready to shake hands with former enemies. Ready. But he can't. He has no hands. He lost them in the war.
Cinematography
Black-and-white frames hands like relics, not appendages.
Direction
Rasulzadeh trusts silence more than any dialogue could earn.
Acting
Andrievich's eyes do what his missing hands cannot.
Director
Chingiz Rasulzadeh
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Post-Soviet shorts often used disabled veterans to critique official war narratives; Rasulzadeh weaponizes sentimentality against itself.
The film's single close-up of empty sleeves was reportedly achieved with a double amputee, not effects—Andrievich's own body is the practical effect.
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