Wege Gottes

Kolja and Jura are two young drifters who aimlessly roam the streets of Odessa. God's Ways follows them in their daily rambles through fairgrounds, parks and stations, where they rely on the benevolence of others to survive. They do not have much hope for the future, and their fantasy world is all the bigger for it. In his apt observations of these two antiheroes, director Neymann especially succeeds in capturing their survival instinct. Although the two boys are clearly aware of the camera, their daily rituals and the unpredictability of their life unfold without any embellishment. Nothing is certain in their vagrant life. Even their friendship turns out to be finite, and when they part company without any obvious reason, their loneliness only increases. There is no real hope that their future will be any better. As the documentary progresses, this hopelessness continues to mount, as does the awareness of how arbitrary life can be. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)