Outside

An abandoned street kid, Roma was adopted by random soldiers in Kyiv’s Independence Square during Ukraine’s Maidan Uprising. But when the media and military encampments cleared out, he was again discarded, this time to an orphanage. Filmmaker Olha Zhurba had shot enough material with Roma by this point to craft an extraordinary story of a child who defended a society that didn’t accept him. Instinctively she kept shooting, keeping track of the mercurial boy who she desperately wanted to help. He tries to connect with his criminal older brother and falls deeper into despair and further from hope for five more years. At 18, with just a knife and a lighter in his pocket, can he possibly take control of his life? Security footage, heartbreaking phone calls and chance meetings populate this expertly layered study of a lost soul who belongs to no one and has nowhere to go.