On April 30, 2026 the New York City Bar Association hosted a pre-release screening of "Soul Arbitration" by Sophia Romma, a powerful documentary exploring the Ukrainian refugee crisis and illuminating the devastating impact of the current war on women and children who are now refugees in Estonia.
Through an intimate tapestry of oral histories and personal narratives, the film illuminates stark realities of the conflict: shattered families, egregious human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Its challenge to the legal minds in the audience: does the law serve as a sanctuary, or is it merely an archive of what was lost? And how can practitioners of international law reinforce the structures of justice so that they are as resilient as the souls they are meant to protect?
The unreleased film is a project of Sharp Frame Docs Productions, LLC, which specializes in documentaries on themes of identity, resilience, migration, memory and survival.
Through oral histories and personal narratives, the film unveils the stark realities of conflict: shattered families, abducted children subjected to indoctrination, and the silent suffering of prisoners of war. It confronts egregious human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, while probing the moral paradoxes of sovereignty, profit from war, and the tragic loss of innocent lives—including young soldiers on both sides.
The refugees got to Estonia on an ocean liner. Romma interviewed women who took refuge in Talinn from Ukraine. The project was funded by an Estonian arts agency. The women's voices and faces were disguised using AI to camouflage their identities.
The audience, like me, was in shock after the film.