A House Made of Splinters: Plot, trailer, and everything you need to know about the Oscar-nominated documentary

Danish director Simon Lereng Wilmont's new documentary, A House Made of Splinters, is one of the contenders to win an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. The film focuses on the lives of various children living in an orphanage in eastern Ukraine.

The documentary has received widespread critical acclaim, with many critics praising the film's raw and brutal approach towards exploring the subject and its unflinching tone, among numerous other things.

The doc is produced by prominent Danish film producer Monica Hellström.

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A House Made of Splinters: Trailer showcases grim reality of kids in the orphanage

The official trailer for A House Made of Splinters offers a glimpse of the brutal realities of the various children living in an orphanage in eastern Ukraine amidst war. The trailer opens with a woman opening the door of a room in the orphanage, waking the children up. A voiceover then says:

''Our shelter is a house built of sorrow. Every child leaves a lasting mark on the shelter's worn-out walls, on us, and on the roads they make here.''

It further states:

''Life has always been hard here, but the war made things even worse. But hope still flickers here. As the saying goes, 'Hope dies last.''

The trailer briefly depicts a number of warm and lighthearted moments from the film whilst not shying away from depicting the grim realities of the lives that the children are forced to live.

Here's a brief description of the movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes:

''As the war in Eastern Ukraine takes a heavy toll on poor families living near the frontline, a small group of strong-willed social workers work tirelessly in a special kind of orphanage to create an almost magical safe space for kids to live in while the state decide the future fate of the child and family.''

Based on the trailer and synopsis for A House Made of Splinters, viewers can look forward to a deeply emotional and realistic documentary that explores the devastating plight of kids caught up in a brutal war as they struggle for survival whilst somehow managing to keep their hopes and will to carry on alive.

Director Simon Lereng Wilmont spoke about the shelter depicted in A House Made of Splinters during a Q/A session at the Laemmle Royal cinema in Los Angeles. He mentioned (obtained via Deadline):

''I distinctly remember (caregiver) Marharyta standing, hugging fiercely two kids, while she was shouting at some parent over the phone. The whole place seemed to radiate comfort and caring.''

During the same session, he also spoke at length about how they approached the highly sensitive and emotional subject. Wilmont said:

''I do my own cinematography and I do my own sound. So, it’s actually just me and my assistant, (a) Ukrainian assistant director. We spend a huge amount of time just getting to know the kids, having fun with them, trying to understand their everyday life and trying to understand their hopes and their dreams and their fears to really see them.''

A House Made of Splinters was screened at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Critics praised the film's emotional tone, its unflinching portrait of the children's lives, the socio-political situation in Ukraine, and the devastating repercussions of war, among various other things.

Other documentaries nominated for the 2023 Oscars are All That Breathes, Fire of Love, Navalny, and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.