Latest news with #2000MeterstoAndriivka
Los Angeles Times
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
A landmark of combat journalism, ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka' is a pummeling dispatch from Ukraine's frontline
We know from headlines that small-scale technologies such as drones have transformed war, most urgently affecting Ukraine's ability to stay in a bruising battle for its existence against Russia. But it's done the same for covering war too, especially the kind of fleet, up-close dispatch of which we can now say Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov is a master. The Associated Press correspondent's follow-up to his harrowing, Oscar-winning '20 Days in Mariupol,' which rendered the first weeks of Russia's invasion inside a city under siege, is another intimate perspective on his country's devastation. But this time it's from the frontlines of Ukraine's 2023 counteroffensive, specifically one brigade's nightmarish trek to liberate a Russian-occupied town. In its heart-stopping intimacy — courtesy of helmet-cams, drones and the foxhole connection between citizen soldier and countryman journalist — '2000 Meters to Andriivka' is a war chronicle like no other. Right away, Chernov introduces us to war's chaos with bodycam footage from a Ukrainian soldier named Piro. It's a dugout POV capturing how a lull marked by jokes and cigarettes can quickly become enemy fire, screaming and artillery shells flying. A retreat is abandoned when the platoon's armored carrier gets stuck. In the ensuing scramble, comrades are hit and we hear a resigned, 'That's it for me.' Suddenly this view feels less like one from a trench but a grave. No wonder Chernov's measured narration sounds bleaker. His speculative dread from 'Mariupol' has been replaced by a fact-driven weariness. He and AP colleague Alex Babenko press on, embedding themselves in a battalion tasked with a one-mile push to retake the town of Andriivka near a Russian stronghold. The path, however, is a thin ribbon of forest hiding Russians in trenches, fortified on each side by open minefields. Also, the designation 'forest' seems generous: The gnarled and stripped trees look broken, suggesting an open wasteland instead of a battleground that could provide cover. They've clearly already seen plenty of destruction, and by the end of the film, they'll have seen more. Chernov tells us that one soldier described this unrecognizable homeland to him as like 'landing on a planet where everything is trying to kill you.' The first-person footage as the group advances is breathless and dense with gunfire, yelling and the sense that each inch will be hard-won on the way to planting that Ukrainian flag in Andriivka, which, from drone shots, already looks decimated. (The film is broken into chapters indicating meters gained.) 'I came to fight, not to serve,' says this brigade's war dog of a leader, a former warehouse worker named Fedya who at one point is shot but makes his way back to the mission after being evacuated for treatment. Still, during long foxhole waits, when the only visible smoke is from a cigarette, Chernov's gentle off-camera queries to Fedya's men (ranging from the hopelessly young to a 40-something new grandfather) elicit touching optimism for a return to normal life: a shower, a job, friendly rivalries over trivial matters, the chance to smoke less, to fix a toilet back home, to rebuild. Then Chernov's voiceover comes in for the softly spoken hammer-blow peek into the future: which of these guys will die in later battles or perhaps never be found. This is gutting stuff. There's never been as immersive a war documentary as '2000 Meters in Andriivka,' cleaving as it does to the swings between peril and blessed boredom, mixing overhead shots (including a suicide drone's vantage) and underground views like a dystopian saga. War is hell, but Ukraine's survival is paramount. The senselessness, however, seems a constant. 'Why are you here?' a Ukrainian soldier barks at a captured Russian, who mutters back, 'I don't know why we're here.'
San Francisco Chronicle
30-07-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
War in Ukraine increasingly ‘AI driven' with ‘robotic systems,' but there's hope, filmmaker says
For Ukrainian filmmaker and war correspondent Mstyslav Chernov, his latest documentary, '2000 Meters to Andriivka,' hits particularly close to home. Really close. 'Andriivka is a two-hour drive from my hometown. One hour if you drive fast,' Chernov said with a laugh. 'Those are places where I went in my childhood. The soldiers you see in the film, for them it is a home that is being invaded and they have their families killed or becoming refugees and they fight for that home, to push the annoying and violent neighbor out of their house.' Chernov, who was raised in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and videographer for the Associated Press who has covered the war since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022. His first documentary, ' 20 Days in Mariupol ' (2023), which chronicled the opening weeks of the invasion when Ukrainian forces and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demonstrated unexpected resolve, earned him an Academy Award for best feature documentary. But while his first film demonstrated hope, '2000 Meters to Andriivka' shows the brutal reality of a conflict that has devolved into a brutal stalemate. It's a character study of a brigade battling through about a mile of heavily fortified forest to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka in September 2023. Chernov and his AP colleague Alex Babenko were on the ground for much of it, and he also utilizes body cam footage from the soldiers. Before heading back to the frontlines in August, Chernov is stopping by the Bay Area for three appearances with the film, Friday through Sunday, Aug. 1-3. He spoke with the Chronicle in a video interview from Los Angeles. Q: How's the war going, from your perspective? A: The technology has advanced so dramatically. What we did in 2023 with this film would not be possible in 2025. There are so many more drones, unmanned systems on the battlefield, robotic systems, glass fiber kamikaze drones and AI-driven weapons. All that influences the dynamic of what we see on the ground. I keep talking to our protagonists who are right now in the Kharkiv region and they are defending my hometown and everyone is incredibly tired. After we premiered '2000 Meters' in January (at Sundance), I went to the frontline and I met our protagonists and I had a long conversation with them about what's going on. The first thing they mentioned that shocked everyone was President Trump meeting (Ukrainian) President Zelenskyy (a disastrous meeting at the White House on Feb. 28). That signified a big shift in politics of what will happen next to the Ukrainian war. Fedya, our protagonist, was really worried that Ukraine would lose the support of the West, but at the same time, he said he was happy it happened that way, because it just showed Ukrainians, soldiers and civilians, that they have to rely on themselves for their survival. Q: How do you assess the Trump-Zelenskyy relationship now? It seems to have gotten better. A: Since February many words have been said, but very few things have changed. I think right now as Ukrainians keep fighting, they will feel the change only if there are actions behind the words. What I do see is a change in Russian rhetoric. If you analyze Russian media, just a few months ago they were cheering and telling their own people that Trump supports Russia rather than supports Ukraine. Right now, the mood inside Russian media has changed; they again came back to portraying the U.S. as the main villain on the planet. Q: It shocked many people in the West who think of Zelenskyy as a hero that he tried to strip anticorruption agencies of their autonomy before restoring them after massive protests. What's your take on that? A: I think it was quite an amazing thing to watch, actually. So the main conversation going around the anti-corruption agency was that it has lost its independence for a while. And, I think one of the reasons why that happened is that in the national polls, anti-corruption agencies had quite a low approval rating among Ukrainians for its effectiveness, although it was working and it was effective in certain cases. When it lost its independence, an amazing thing happened, which nobody expected, but which made me, as a Ukrainian citizen, incredibly happy and hopeful, is that thousands of young people, a generation from 15 to 24 years, mostly, but also some veterans, came out on the streets and demanded the government return independence to this anti-corruption agency. The government reacted and it worked. So this law is coming back and the anti-corruption agencies will be independent and even more effective. And that's the amazing thing about Ukrainian society. Even in the midst of the war, they don't look for excuses to stay silent. They go on the streets and exercise a direct democracy that we see in every democratic country. Seeing a functional democracy in the middle of war, it's amazing. Q: So in a way this younger generation is laying the groundwork for not just a post-war Ukraine, but inevitably a post-Zelenskyy Ukraine. A: They are going to be forming the identity of the future country which inevitably will come out of this war. A peaceful, democratic country with good and decent values.
ITV News
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ITV News
'I want people to remember how close it is': Oscar-winning Ukrainian filmmaker on new documentary
Two thousand meters; it isn't very far. A short stroll; no more than that. But in Ukraine, as film-maker Mstyslav Chernov tells me: 'Every meter of land is someone's life and someone's blood.'' His new documentary, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, is raw reportage from the front line of a single battle; harrowing, heart-breaking and often very hard to watch. The fight is through a narrow strip of woodland to recapture a village seized by the invading Russians. Chernov walked every step of the way with Ukraine's Third Assault Brigade. He returned alive. Many more did not. "My main goal was to keep the memory of those people - and to honour them and their names,'' he says. ''To express the strength of Ukrainian soldiers who are protecting the land that I call home.'' Almost every soldier we meet along the way is ultimately doomed. There are no Hollywood heroes; just men, filled with fear, doing their duty. And yet Hollywood has already honoured Chernov for his previous film, 20 Days in Mariupol. In his Oscar's acceptance speech last year, he said he would gladly swap the award for a Russian retreat from Ukraine. It can't be easy to inhabit such different worlds; to tread the red carpet one moment and then to cower in a muddy trench. "It is a paradox,'' he says. "The existence of those red carpets in normal life… and then you travel across a couple thousands of kilometres and you just cross the border, take a train, take a car, and you are back in time 100 years. "Or sometimes it feels like another planet. It's so different. "But if you turn on the Russian television, they will keep saying that it takes only 20 minutes for a Russian nuclear bomb hit London, or it will take only 24 hours for Russian tanks to reach Berlin. "I just want people to remember how close it is and how real it is." It is, he says a film, about distance and how deceptive that can be; the length of the woods becomes a chasm the solders must bridge; the thousands of miles between the front line where so many sacrifice their lives and the political leaders making the actual decisions likely to decide Ukraine's fate. As we speak, America seems to be losing faith that Vladimir Putin will agree a ceasefire. I ask him if he'd like to screen the film for President Trump. "I would love to screen this film for the political establishment in US,'' he replies. "Just to pierce the bubble. The political bubble, abstract bubble, and just bring a little bit of reality. "There is so much false information that reaches the ears of politicians who are making big decisions. I'd love them to see things how they really are.'' 2000 Meters to Ardriivka brings the grim reality far too close for comfortable viewing. In the end, the soldiers achieve their objective but it's a costly and fleeting victory. The Russians soon return. No film, I have seen, captures so well the futility of war – nor, its absolute necessity for those defending their homeland. 2000 Meters To Andriivka is in cinemas from Friday.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bucha massacre documentary wins gold at New York Festivals 2025
A documentary by the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty about the massacres in Bucha during the Russian occupation has won a gold award at the New York Festivals 2025 television awards. It took the prize in the Human Rights category. Source: Radio Liberty Details: The documentary, How Russian Forces Hunted Down A Ukrainian Shopkeeper In Bucha Bloodbath, is the second part of an investigation by journalist Dmytro Dzhulai into the massacres in Bucha during the Russian occupation in March 2022. It examines the circumstances of the executions and names Russian military personnel who may be involved in the killing of local self-defence member Oleksii Pobihay. The winners were announced on the evening of 22 May in New York during the virtual Storytellers gala. Other laureates this year included Al Jazeera English, Voice of America, ABCTV, PBS, BBC and Deutsche Welle, among others. Background: In March 2025, a documentary by Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, won an award at the CPH:DOX documentary film festival in Denmark. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Always' Review: Deming Chen's Strikingly Confident Debut Plays Like a Long Visual Poem
Gorgeously rendered in picturesque cinematography, 'Always' offers a meditative and patient look into the life of an adolescent poet in rural China. But the poetry is not limited to the protagonist's words, which appear as intertitles throughout the film; it is also there in the images captured of him, his family, classmates and his small village and its people. This is a confident and striking debut for filmmaker Deming Chen that should establish him as a new and vital voice in the documentary genre. The film opens in color, then turns to black and white as if going back to a more innocent time. Later in the film, the color returns, desaturated and faint though beautiful, marking the passage of time. Chen, who acts as his own cinematographer, followed his protagonist Gong Youbin from the age of 9 to 13. In this slice-of-life portrait, Chen shows how childhood experiences can shape someone, illustrating how a childhood passion might expand their horizons without necessarily becoming a lifelong vocation. More from Variety Deming Chen's 'Always' Wins Main Prize at CPH:DOX as Mstyslav Chernov Nabs F:ACT Award for '2000 Meters to Andriivka' How to Navigate the Political Documentary Market: 'Audiences Want to Watch Something That Engages With the World Around Us' Alex Gibney-Produced Documentary About Palestinian-American Scholar Edward Said Among Winners at CPH:DOX Industry Awards The filmmaker wanted to make a film about poetry. Then Gong decided to stop writing. That initial instinct remains intact, as the images he captured maintain the aura of poetry. This change of course allowed for the inclusion of the writing of Gong's classmates, making a film more expansive as a bevy of adolescents find their voices and are influenced by the terrain and the economic hardship of their surroundings. Whether confronting their tough realities or fleeing into a world of dreams, their poems give 'Always' its beating heart. Still, Gong remains at the center of the story. He lives in a multigenerational household with his father and grandparents. The patriarch had his arm amputated in an accident that hindered his ability to provide for his family. All three generations work together, in the house, on the farm and in the fields. They might be living in poverty and seeking government subsidies, but this is a household marked by perseverance and humor. Gong and his family members are aware of the filmmakers, even mention the filming, yet remain largely unselfconscious in front of the cameras. The film doesn't ask for sympathy for this family or present them as objects of pity. Rather, it patiently shows them living and thriving despite hardship. A trauma evident in Gong's life is the fact his mother ran away when he was very young. Though it's implied that she may have wanted to escape the harsh economic conditions that her husband's disability exacerbated, the answer never becomes clear to Gong. In a poignant scene, Chen asks him about his mother, with the camera following him escaping and trying to hide under a bale of hay. Gong might not be able to articulate the impact of this abandonment in words, but 'Always' renders it painfully clear. This film is also about landscape and environment. The camera painstakingly takes in Gong's surroundings: fields of crops, mountains half-hidden by fog, insects moving in soil, the faint dust of the stars at night. Most passionately, it shows the elements these people are working with. The land gives them life. There's no didacticism about climate change; 'Always' just shows that the land and what it gives is how people thrive. Some of these achingly beautiful images look like paintings come to life briefly on celluloid. The dialogue is sparse in this slow cinema exercise. It might test patience but also rewards those who give in and embrace its rhythm, taking their time looking at every corner of its beautiful frames. In using both words and images as poetry, Chen has made a film about the end of childhood that beautifully captures that stage in all its complexities and beauty. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
