Transnistria broke away from Moldova in a civil war after the Soviet collapse and has run itself ever since, with its own flag, currency and government that nobody internationally recognizes. DW's crew travels through the breakaway strip on the Dniester, filming the roughly 1,500 Russian troops still stationed there and talking to residents who remain loyal to Moscow even as poverty deepens around them. Interviews with officials, business figures and ordinary citizens lay out how a network of oligarchs controls the economy, with critics describing a closed system linking politics, business and pro-Russian security structures. The film tracks the fallout from Russia cutting gas supplies in early 2025, a shock that hit hard given that roughly 80 percent of Transnistria's exports actually go to the EU. Against the backdrop of Moldova's EU candidacy and the 2022 explosions that rattled the region after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the documentary lays out a territory pulled between two directions at once, with no clean resolution in sight.