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Every year thousands of orthodox Hasidic Jews travel to Uman in Ukraine to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, and pray at the grave of their spiritual leader Rebbe Nachman. How can these two completely different worlds – the Ukrainian and the Jewish – coexist in the city where Cossacks murdered 20 000 Jews 250 years ago? Does the power of Rebbe Nachman’s teachings bring the long-time enemies closer?

Vladimir was an officer in the Soviet Army, and for 20 years has minded the Jewish cemetery in Breslov, Ukraine. When the Hasidim come to visit Breslov, Vladimir will break open the entrance to the cellars his house is built on, and where the great Hasid Nachman dictated his books. Vladimir will take part in a protest by nationalists, organised in Uman at the monument to the Cossacks who murdered 20,000 Jews and Poles in 1768. Several days later, thousands of Hasidim will joyfully celebrate Rosh Hashanah at the cemetery where the victims were buried and which contains Nachman’s grave. They are not concerned by accusations of corruption among the local authorities. We don’t know, how will the conflict between the Hasidim and Zalizniak's descendants end. But when the winter comes, the snow will cover everything and life in the Ukrainian provinces will once again become banal.