Today at 17:26
Unlike an amputated leg or arm, psychological trauma isn’t so easy to see.
The same was true for the heroine of the award-winning documentary film “No Obvious Signs,” about female soldiers going through post-traumatic stress disorder.
Everything turned into hell in Oksana Yakubova’s life after she returned from the war in Eastern Ukraine. She served there from 2014 to 2017 as a battalion deputy commander. Her unit consisted of 600 people.
“In December 2016, we took part in heavy battles. These include battles in the area of Debaltseve and the Svitlodarsk Arc. The rotation of our troops was also difficult, a lot of our soldiers were killed. This year alone, 50 people from my battalion. And 180 were wounded. In the end, I started to think that something was a little wrong with me. But I kept holding on. I did not leave the combat zone for eight months,” Yakubova said.
After a vacation, Yakubova had no strength to return to the front line. She broke down. Starting in 2017, she was treated in a hospital, a military sanatorium — and underwent psychotherapy, organized by volunteers.
“This year, I also had a breakdown. I was cured at the hospital for war veterans, as hospitals for civilians don’t admit us. When they see that you are a war veteran, who had a breakdown and was shell-shocked — they immediately say, ‘Go somewhere else!’ I was told in one hospital, ‘Go to a madhouse!'” Yakubova said.
The director of “No Obvious Signs” met with Yakubova when she was filming the movie “Invisible Battalion,” about women at war.
“After I met Oksana, it became clear to me that this film does not portray people at war, but it portrays them after the war. This is how we made a short film. The story itself had to be a full-length film. This is how we managed to highlight the problem of rehabilitation,” director Alina Horlova said. “During filming, I realized that our state hasn’t solved this problem.”
Last year, at its premiere, “No Obvious Signs” was recognized as the Best East European Film at the international Doc Leipzig Festival. In Ukraine, it won four awards at the DocuDays UA Festival.
