“Stone, Leaf, Gun”, exceptional documentary on refugees from Ukraine heading to Poland

Three days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2023, Maciek Hamela, a Pole, decided to use his eight-seater minivan to pick up Ukrainians wanting to flee their country. He will take four successive cinematographers on board to film the testimony of the families he collects. They will number a total of around 400 people in six months, among the 100,000 Ukrainian refugees welcomed in Poland. Stone, leaf, gun hits theaters Wednesday, November 8.

Field – reverse shot

The name of the playground game, “rock, paper, scissors”, is diverted into “rock, paper, gun” by a child in Maciek Hamela’s minivan, and gives the title of the film. It reveals the impact that the Russian invasion has on the Ukrainian population, going so far as to be lodged in the name of a child’s game. An everyday utensil, a pair of scissors, becomes a firearm and is, like it, trivialized in a daily life that has become war.

Maciek Hamela constructs his film by practically reducing it to two alternating fixed shots: the road passing through the windshield of his vehicle, and the reverse shot framing his passengers behind him. Stone, leaf, gun is a road movie. The vehicle becomes a mini-agora where passengers who do not know each other recount, often for the first time, their experience of the war. These words, sometimes light-hearted, testify to the retreat, tinged with fatalism, shown by Ukrainians, caught in such a dramatic context.

Jump into the void

This feeling of control of the situation by the population reflects that of the authorities in kyiv, at least in these first six months of war that the film covers. Each story is different, in the motivations of those involved, the constraints, the destinations, according to the social classes and mixed generations, passing through in the minivan. Travelers talk about a latent war since the first conflict in 2014, the feeling of separation, and the upcoming reunion with loved ones, once they arrive at their destination. Hope, but also fear in the face of the unknown of an uncertain future, also inspires a big leap into the void.

Maciek Hamela captured the “T” moment of a historic time, live, with those forgotten by History, the civilian populations, the first victims of the war. Those in the film are forced to leave their country, their home, their neighbors, their lives. But they also exude the joy of leaving, of leaving the battlefield. A wind of freedom fills the cabin of the car from which we hardly leave the film. Yet the image is remarkable, the ribbon of the road passing by, the life that the passengers exude, their spontaneity and talkativeness, make it Stone, leaf, gun a powerful testimony on the war, in Ukraine as elsewhere.

The sheet

Gender : Documentary
Director: Maciek Hamela
Country : Poland/Francid/Ukraine
Duration : 1h24
Exit : November 8, 2023
Distributer : New Story

Synopsis: A Polish van travels the roads of Ukraine. On board, Maciek Hamela evacuates inhabitants who have fled their country since the Russian invasion. The vehicle then becomes an ephemeral refuge, a zone of trust and confidences for people who leave everything behind them and have only one objective: to find a possibility of life for themselves and their children.