Turn in the Wound

Turn in the Wound is a 2024 documentary film directed by Abel Ferrara. It is a film about performance, poetry, music and the experience of people at war, focusing on life in Kyiv since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

An international co-production among British, German, Italian and American production companies, the film was selected in the Berlinale Special at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 16 February 2024. The film was also nominated for the Berlinale Documentary Film Award.

Content


This film explores how art, music and poetry express the feelings of people who are caught in war. It examines how they cope with the endless pain and violence that remind them of their history, and how they pursue their dreams of liberation from tyranny and war. The film features Patti Smith's voice, reading poems by Antonin Artaud, René Daumal and Arthur Rimbaud, along with the testimonies of fighters and civilians in Ukraine's war zones and the words of its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Cast

 * Volodymyr Zelenskyy
 * Andriy Yermak
 * Patti Smith

Release
Turn in the Wound premiered on 16 February 2024, as part of the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, in Berlinale Special.

Reception
Siddhant Adlakha writing in Variety said, "That Ferrara doesn’t shy away from capturing pitfalls suggests a larger and more overarching view of conflict — political and military; ethical and aesthetic — which Turn in the Wound attempts to fold into its purview." Adlakha continued, "It doesn’t always succeed, given the breadth of the topics at hand, but it does occasionally distill them into moments that prove either gut-churning or powerfully introspective."

Leslie Felperin reviewing the film for The Hollywood Reporter termed it as "A watchably odd entry in the Ukraine doc subgenre;" and opined, "I’m not sure what [Smith] and Ferrara have contributed with this film to the Ukrainian cause, but it’s watchable at least."