At first look, this could be any group of young schoolchildren learning English as a second language. They repeat together the names of the different everyday objects shown on a screen: “ball!”; “doll!”
But then the teacher adds an extra task: The children are to yell out the word “danger” every time they recognize a picture of a toy that’s been booby-trapped with a bomb or a mine.
It’s more than a game: To harm Ukrainians, Russian soldiers have been found to hide munitions rigged to explode upon discovery in a wide range of random objects, including in children’s toys.
This is just one scene from the documentary “Timestamp” (original title: “Strichka chasu”), which portrays the different ways schools have kept running in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. It was the only documentary featured in the Berlin International Film Festival’s 2025 main competition.
