Three men. Three countries. One way out.

LOGLINE

In the shattered aftermath of war in 1920 Eastern Europe, Polish officer Jan Kowalczyk, Russian soldier Mikhail Volkovand Hungarian commander László Fekete—three men history has given every reason to distrust one another—are forced onto the same road toward Bucharest, where surviving refugee trains, ruined villages, shifting armies, disease, hunger and borders that seem to move beneath their feet gradually transforms an alliance of necessity into a brotherhood, forcing each man to decide whether home is still a country—or simply the people who refuse to leave you behind.

THE STORY

Europe has stopped fighting one war without learning how to live with what it left behind. Borders have moved, governments have fallen, armies have fractured and millions of people are stranded between countries that no longer resemble the ones they remember. Into that wreckage come Jan Kowalczyk, a Polish officer still carrying the obligations of family and country; Mikhail Volkov, a Russian soldier whose survival has taught him to keep his loyalties private; and László Fekete, a Hungarian commander carrying the burden of men he could not bring home. They do not become friends because history suddenly stops mattering. They become necessary to one another. Across ruined villages, mountains and refugee columns, the three discover that uniforms which once determined who was enemy and who was ally mean less with every mile. A desperate refugee-train passage forces them to function as a unit. Letters from home remind them what each man believes he is walking toward. And when circumstance finally gives them an opportunity to separate, Bucharest becomes the place where they choose not to.

The road continues long after the shooting stops. The men encounter civilians who have lost countries, children who have lost parents and soldiers who have survived governments that no longer exist. By the time America becomes imaginable, escape is no longer the same thing as salvation. New York offers work, hunger, crowded rooms, prejudice and the humiliating realization that surviving Europe has not guaranteed them a place in America. Yet the skills that kept Jan, Mikhail and László alive become the foundation of something none of them could have built alone: families, livelihoods and an immigrant network that eventually helps others escape another European catastrophe. Decades become generations. By the time the story reaches the modern Karmina House, almost everyone who remembers the original road is gone—but what those three men built remains. They began as strangers carrying different flags. They survived because, when every government and border around them failed, they never abandoned one another.

THREE MEN. ONE WAY OUT.

When the borders disappear, home is who keeps walking beside you.