24h Europe: The Next Generation

11 pm in Central Europe translates to 1 a.m. in Moscow. Nikolai, a young medical doctor living openly gay in Moscow, pays a late visit to his college friend Olga. She plans to emigrate to Germany with her husband and young son Yegor. For one, she wants to develop professionally and has heard that medical standards in Germany are high. But in 2018 there is also another reason: "When I watch and hear the current news, I get worried. We used to have an Iron Curtain, and I get the feeling that this is coming back to us." Nikolai also wants to emigrate. His reason is simple: He, too, wants to start a family - and for him, this is impossible in Russia shaped by the regime of Vladimir Putin. "Non-traditional marriages" are forbidden, and Nikolai could never make his personal dream come true. In a suburb of Barcelona, Alba and her mother take part in a solidarity event for the leaders of the Catalan independence movement. In Volnovakha, Donetsk Oblast, Aleksandr Zak prepares strategies for the next day and looks back at battles he has survived. At 24, has been in the Ukrainian army for three years. He hopes that the Ukrainian state will soon be victorious.