ND/NF ’25: Timestamp

In retrospect, schools were clearly closed for far too long during the Covid era. Kids need school for both education and socialization. That is why Ukraine has labored and sacrificed to keep schools open during Putin’s war. Education continues, but the impact of the war is inescapable in Kateryna Gornostai’s documentary, Timestamp (dedicated to her fallen brother), which screens during this year’s New Directors/New Films.

As one graduation speaker observes, this year’s graduating class lived out their student years almost entirely during wartime conditions, if we count the 2014 Donbas invasion. Obviously, things got even worse in 2022. Yet, Gornostai documents several graduations, only one of which was sadly virtual, because the school’s home city had been completely razed to the ground by Putin’s military.

Somehow, in-person schooling continues, but the experience is much different from what American viewers might remember. Elementary school children now receive regular instruction on how to identify and report booby-trapped toys left on the streets to maim them. Older secondary students learn how to tie-off torniquets, which involve the titular “timestamp.” Even the coursework for advanced architecture and engineering students has adapted to the times, because all new structures now incorporate some kind of bomb shelter.

Not surprisingly, instruction is often interrupted by air raid sirens. Even the national standardized test for university admissions now makes allowances for wartime disruptions. Altogether, it is a sad, bitterly cruel state of affairs. Admittedly, some younger children appear somewhat traumatized, but Ukrainian students in general exhibit an inspiring resiliency.

There are a number of amazing scenes in Timestamp, which is more of a mosaic of vignettes than a definitive study. Frankly, cutting a few of the less resonant sequences and giving more background for others would have strengthened the film’s impact. Nevertheless, any viewer of good conscious will be deeply moved by many of the students appearing in Timestamp—like the six-year-old-ish young girl who notices her father’s picture is part of a new tribute to Ukrainian servicemen in her school’s library. (It seems reasonable to infer he was killed in the line of duty, but this is also an example of how added context would help the film).

Regardless, there are many such emotionally devastating moments in Timestamp. It captures a very different educational and coming-of-age experience, forced on Ukrainian youth through no fault of their own (or that of their parents or nation). A little more focus would have raised the doc’s historical significance close to that of Mstyslav Chernov’s staggering 20 Days in Mariupol, but it is still definitely a valuable and revealing portrait of young Ukrainians enduring and overcoming the horrors of Putin’s illegal war. Very highly recommended, Timestamp screens tonight (4/12) and tomorrow (4/13) during ND/NF ’25.