When war is called peace, propaganda is passed off as truth and hate as love, life itself begins to resemble death. Such is Donbass, which makes the impression of a practical travel guide for a journey to hell. The film is situated in its namesake, an eastern Ukrainian region occupied by various criminal gangs which fight by turns with the Ukrainian national army, with other gangs and with Russian mercenary units. The story unfolds over the backdrop of a hybrid war, encompassing open armed conflict, theft on a grand scale and the gradual decline of civil society. A land reigned by omnipresent fear, falsehood, hatred and death. The war is coming to a peak. Sergei Loznitsa’s latest film provokes with its black humour and established Eastern traditions, though it may not always please Westernoriented viewers.