by Polina Kuznetsova
Locations: Tallinn, Estonia
Gothenburg, Sweden 2022
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For me it’s an image, for many people who found themselves in occupation or in captivity, it’s reality.
When I left the cell after an hour and a half, journalists asked “what did you want to say?” And I had no words.
I said that I want to pay attention to those who cannot remember about themselves, I said that there are such horrors in this war that even the press does not want to talk about. And I also said that I feel very free, I can go in and out of the cell. And that sitting in the rain on Freedom Square in a cell, in Tallinn I am especially free because I have the opportunity to express my feelings. More possibilities than in an apartment with news on the screen. A guy from Mariupol was in the cell with me. Pasha well noticed that in a cell you lose track of time quite quickly. You lose the feeling of cold. I noticed that only when I warmed up, and only a day after the event, I felt how cold and wet I was then…
It was the same with the first days in Kharkiv, it took many months to realize what happened there and what you felt when the bombs flew over your city. I saw my friend Tyra’s new interview, she’s shaking. In the beginning, after releasing from captivity, she was more sharp and cheerful. And now the feelings are returning. I remember how she said then that she would never be captured again…
Photos by Karin Kantso