Chulpan Khamatova has a precise memory of the day in February 2022 when Russia attacked Ukraine and her life veered into unknown territory. She was on vacation in Seychelles with her youngest daughter, enjoying a break from performances of The Master and Margarita, an adaptation of Bulgakov's novel in which she had been performing in Moscow, and had booked an excursion to the sea to swim with turtles on February 24. In the cab to the boat, she glanced at her cell phone and was stricken with terror: Vladimir Putin had just launched an invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv and several other major cities were being bombed.

The 45-year-old Russian actress, an adored star of both the theater and the cinema who had won multiple awards, was stunned. "My hands started to shake," she said. "I thought of my friends in Ukraine, of my daughters in Moscow, of my country flouting all the rules, of the monstrous Putin who had just committed the irreparable. What a nightmare!"

How could she have been so blind, she thought, as to believe that this dreaded war would not happen? She remembered the discussions over the previous weeks with her friends – writers, actors and filmmakers. There had been those who said, "Putin is crazy. He's capable of the worst. Nothing will stop him." And there had been those who, like her, thought, "No, because that would be suicidal. He would isolate Russia and lose all credibility." But he had done it. While her daughter and the other tourists were rushing to dive into the Seychelles lagoon, she clutched at her phone, her mind thousands of kilometers away. "I wasn't able to think. My head was like a turbine. What was going to happen to all of us? Putin had just wiped out the future, and I was convinced that my life was shattering."

On the boat, no one suspected that the frail blonde woman, visibly desperate, was one of Russia's most famous actresses, particularly well-known for her role in Good Bye Lenin! (2003), directed by Wolfgang Becker. She didn't look up, concentrating on her screen. She had to immediately give her consent to sign open letters and petitions against the war, including one by her journalist friend Dmitry Muratov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021. She had to immediately contact colleagues and friends to urge them to react. She had to immediately change her plane tickets.

She still had a week's worth of vacation left. She instantly decided she would not spend it in Moscow. Instead, she would slip into Latvia, where she had a refuge, a simple house built in the middle of the woods. "I sometimes went there on vacation, but it was above all a plan B, in case things went wrong in Russia." She also needed to get Moscow-Riga tickets for her two other daughters, aged 19 and 20. "The urgent thing was to get us all together. As for the rest, I would figure it out later." And so it was that, two days later, armed with a suitcase containing sandals, swimsuits and sarongs, Khamatova landed in Riga, where it was -18° C.

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