On resilience, ruins, and the silent trauma of war

In eastern Ukraine, where war has reduced towns to rubble, children grow up among ruins. Boney Piles follows Nastya and Yarik, two young inhabitants of a devastated landscape, navigating their daily lives with disarming resilience and imagination. Their world—scarred by bombed-out homes and fractured memories—becomes a surreal mix of play and survival.

Shot before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Taras Tomenko’s quietly powerful film captures the slow, haunting presence of conflict. It is a study in endurance and a portrait of place, where architecture becomes a remnant of both past violence and persistent hope.

Presented by Ukrainian Architect Maksym Rokmaniko, Director of Center for Spatial Technologies and part of the group Forensic Architecture.

A film by Taras Tomenko

year: 2022, length: 80 min.

Introduction in English, film in Ukrainian with English subtitles.

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