Yamada has long made films about the lives of dogs and cats. Following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, she rushed to the 20-kilometer exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear power plant and also reported from areas affected by the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake.
Driven by a conviction that the plight of animals on the front lines had to be told, she took her camera into war-torn Ukraine.
“Dogs are the animals closest to humans,” says Yamada. “When we look at the world through them, human beings come into sharper focus. Behind every dog, there is always a person.”
The film follows dogs living in the midst of war, and the people who came from around the world to rescue these small lives. Through them, it reveals the experiences of people whose lives have been upended by conflict, and the hopes for peace expressed from many different perspectives.
This is a story of hope about people who, in the midst of war, chose not to fight,but to save lives.
