The Dreamers (looking for love in the darkest times)

After the start of the war in Ukraine, in search of the internal enemy (as it always happens in the critical situation) Russian authorities introduced new law prohibiting LGBTQIA+ propaganda and started to persecute community memebrs. Therefore a lot of them were forced to leave the country. Within the framework of this portrait based story, I have found couples - representatives of the Russian LGBTQIA+ community who left the country to Georgia, the most popular destinations for Russian migration during wartime because of the visa free regime. I have made intimate portraits of the couples exploring their vulnerable mental state during the current darkest times. I have captured their emotions somewhere in between the old life that has not finished yet and the new chapter that is about to begin. All the characters of the story hope to find the right path in the context of the ongoing events and inner peace by the means of love. Is it possible with all these scars that the past leaves behind? Visually and meaningfully the project refers to Bernardo Bertolucci's movie "The Dreamers" in which the director is exploring protest in the form of the escapism into physical and mental closeness.