TABIR — A Documentary Film by Natalija Yefimkina
For one week, Ukrainian director Natalija Yefimkina and her all-female crew are given unsupervised access to a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war camp.
They have come to look the enemy in the eye. But what they encounter is more unsettling than expected: intimate conversations, phone calls home, fear, denial, and sudden emotional outbursts.
Sophia Fenn’s cinematography, nominated for the German Camera Award, gets remarkably close to the men.
They have come to look the enemy in the eye. But what they encounter is more unsettling than expected: intimate conversations, phone calls home, fear, denial, and sudden emotional outbursts.
Sophia Fenn’s cinematography, nominated for the German Camera Award, gets remarkably close to the men.
Tabir asks what happens when the enemy is no longer an abstraction — without ceasing to be the enemy.
SYNOPSIS
Tabir is the Ukrainian word for “camp.” The film enters a rarely documented world: a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war camp where Russian soldiers are held in accordance with international law.
Accompanied by an all-female crew, Ukrainian director Natalija Yefimkina is granted one week of unsupervised access to the camp, determined to look the enemy in the eye.
With remarkable cinematic sensitivity, Sophia Fenn’s German Camera Award-nominated cinematography captures everyday life behind barbed wire. Between work and interrogations, the camera observes unexpectedly open conversations, phone calls to their mothers, meetings with psychologists, and sudden emotional outbursts. Staying close to the men’s faces and gestures, it creates an intimacy that is as surprising as it is unsettling.
Without commentary or predetermined answers, Tabir allows individuals to emerge in all their contradictions — shaped by loyalty, fear, and self-justification.
Filmed in Ukraine in 2025, Tabir is a cinematic act of witnessing: a film about looking closely and enduring a reality that resists easy certainties.
Accompanied by an all-female crew, Ukrainian director Natalija Yefimkina is granted one week of unsupervised access to the camp, determined to look the enemy in the eye.
With remarkable cinematic sensitivity, Sophia Fenn’s German Camera Award-nominated cinematography captures everyday life behind barbed wire. Between work and interrogations, the camera observes unexpectedly open conversations, phone calls to their mothers, meetings with psychologists, and sudden emotional outbursts. Staying close to the men’s faces and gestures, it creates an intimacy that is as surprising as it is unsettling.
Without commentary or predetermined answers, Tabir allows individuals to emerge in all their contradictions — shaped by loyalty, fear, and self-justification.
Filmed in Ukraine in 2025, Tabir is a cinematic act of witnessing: a film about looking closely and enduring a reality that resists easy certainties.
- DirectorNatalija Yefimkina
- ProductionNyfilm GmbH
- ProducersTomas Lembke, Natalija Yefimkina
- CinematographySophia Fenn
- SoundMariia Nesterenko, Natalia Arshavskaya
- EditingNicole Fischer, Anna Saridi
- MusicHans Könnecke
- Color GradingAnis Fedaoui
- Sound DesignDmitry Friga
- Sound MixArseniy Nomikosov
- Title DesignEmma Grau
- GenreDocumentary
- Production CountriesGermany, Ukraine
- Running Time36 min
“I went there to look the enemy in the eye. I expected to see monsters. Instead, I encountered people — frightened, conflicted, and caught in a war machine much larger than themselves. For me, this film became a way to confront the war rather than stand powerless before it. The closer I looked, the harder it became to see anything in simple black-and-white terms.”
– Natalija Yefimkina, Director and Writer
– Natalija Yefimkina, Director and Writer
Natalija Yefimkina
Director and Writer
Natalija Yefimkina (1983) was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. Following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, she spent three years of her childhood in Siberia. In 1997, she moved to Germany with her family.
After studying history and literature in Leipzig and Berlin, she initially worked as an assistant director and production assistant on feature film productions.
Following several short documentary projects, she made her first feature-length documentary and directorial debut, GARAGENVOLK.
The film received the Heiner Carow Prize at the Berlinale and later won the Werner Herzog Film Award as well as the Eurimages Audentia Award for Best Female Director.
Natalija Yefimkina subsequently worked as a filmmaker and journalist, reporting on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
After studying history and literature in Leipzig and Berlin, she initially worked as an assistant director and production assistant on feature film productions.
Following several short documentary projects, she made her first feature-length documentary and directorial debut, GARAGENVOLK.
The film received the Heiner Carow Prize at the Berlinale and later won the Werner Herzog Film Award as well as the Eurimages Audentia Award for Best Female Director.
Natalija Yefimkina subsequently worked as a filmmaker and journalist, reporting on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
GALLERY
