After a breakup, Matei (15) takes a summer job at a surreal resort. Faced with exploitation, absurd masculinity retreats and distress, he endures illegal tasks with no promise of pay, until he finally stands up and refuses to be used any longer.

Marina Starkowa, a 37-year-old woman living in Poltava, Ukraine, feels the weight of two and a half years of war. Her life has become a monotonous routine marked by the oppressive atmosphere of a city that feels like a prison. The war has robbed her and her fellow Ukrainians of their futures, instilling a numb acceptance of airstrikes and grief over lost loved ones. With no end to the conflict in sight, fears of escalation, including a nuclear catastrophe, loom large.

Marina carries out her daily tasks—working in a plastic factory and shopping. Also she really dreams to have a kid. As Poltava turns into a city of women, with men either at the front or fleeing, she escapes into her dreams of the Chernobyl Zone, a place she once explored illegally, inspired by Tarkovsky’s STALKER. In these dreams, she feels young again, vibrant, and free, roaming a landscape reclaimed by nature.

Matei, undergoing his first breakup, is pushed to take a summer job by his father, who finds him work at the Romanoff Guesthouse through a family acquaintance named Roman. What starts as a harmless summer job turns into a series of uncomfortable, degrading tasks. Instead of reception work, Matei hauls trash, digs a trench to hide an illegal thermal drill and handles an impromptu dog breeding job. For the worse, Matei is strung along by Roman, who avoids salary talk, despite the increasingly difficult tasks entrusted. The guesthouse hosts an absurd masculinity retreat with horseback riding, ice baths, performative speeches and a waiter robot gifted to Roman. Matei becomes an observer of surreal dynamics, trying to find meaning in the contradictions. He befriends quirky coworkers, navigates daily humiliations and has a flirtatious encounter with an older guest, Monika. Matei keeps asking Roman about his pay, only to be dismissed or ridiculed. This pushes him to the edge, making him realise that he is exploited. Roman, manipulative and authoritarian, embodies the abuse of power and the murky ethics of adult responsibilities. By the end, Matei is given the task of mowing and burning a field. Instead he confronts Roman, who mocks him but finally pays him a meagre sum after weeks of hard work. With no dramatic victory in sight, everyone ends up fighting each other and dying, except for Matei and Monika who seem to have found each other; and also the robot, the future of labour.