Kupyansk fell to Russian troops without a shot fired, its mayor handing the town of 30,000 over to advancing forces. This DW film, made by Julia Bayer, Mathias Bölinger, Lewis Sanders and Hanna Sokolova, reconstructs six months of occupation through the people who lived it. One local politician organizes protests under the Ukrainian flag until Russian forces crack down, and residents describe being disappeared into torture chambers for speaking out. The occupiers hand out Russian passports and rebuild Kupyansk as a showcase for what they call "Russkij Mir," the Russian world. When Ukrainian forces retake the town, Russian artillery stationed ten kilometers away begins near-daily bombardment in retaliation, emptying streets that had only just been freed. Interviews mix those who fled with those who stayed, and those who collaborated with those who resisted openly or in secret. The film does not sort its subjects into heroes and villains; it lays out the pressures that pushed ordinary people toward complicity, resistance, or simple survival, and leaves the question of guilt open.