The city is still and quiet. Not a tree leaf moves, as if trying not to call attention to itself. At the border, a two-pronged attack, though denied, is methodically being organized. One will come from the north into Kyiv and the other, here, 35 miles from Russia in the southeast of Ukraine. The filmmaker’s soft, calm voice whispers, “Someone once told me: Wars don’t start with explosions. They start with silence.” He waits in ready, like a patient sniper, with his camera trained on the gray-white horizon of Mariupol.
The filmmaker/narrator, Mstyslav Chernov, humanizes his documentary, allowing the viewer to become acquainted with the stricken, the people in crisis, and the dead. He is also able to deliver to news services around the world the truth about what is happening.
By Day 7, all journalists have left a besieged Mariupol except Chernov. He has remained to document history. We see him filming and then the same footage repeated on tv news. We see Putin and Russian spokespeople say they are not planning to occupy Ukraine, impose anything by force or target civilians. They deny what we see, only civilians bombed out in normal neighborhoods.
A soccer field is an early hit. One boy has both legs blown off. He is brought dead to the hospital. His father gently holds his child’s head and weeps. The hospital staff, through tears, begs Chernov to film all he can. They think that if the world knows help will come.
On the first full day of the invasion, a mother is out in the street waiting for her son to drive from his house to protect her. Debating on whether to stand his journalist’s distance or not, Chernov stops and tells her she must run for her basement. This marks Chernov for what he is, a humanist first, a journalist second. A day later he returns, as the woman’s neighborhood was amongst the first bombed. She is safe, but panicked like the rest.
Someone cries out, “What did we do to deserve this? What are we guilty of?” No one seems to know.
At any moment, Chernov and his small crew may be the next victims. As he admits, he follows the smoke. But his mind keeps taking him back to his daughters, who have had to flee Ukraine. “If someday my daughters ask me, What did you do to stop this war, this sadistic virus of destruction, I want to be able to give them an answer.” So, as a Ukrainian nationalist, he stands his ground and reports what he sees.
Initially, Chernov was an award-winning fine arts photographer of crumbling architecture, heart surgeries, Cambodian culture, and other kinds of interest-driven subjects. But in 2013, being in Turkey during an uprising, he switched to conflict and war reporting. From then he has covered the wars in Syria and Iraq as well as the migrant crisis in Europe and other conflicts with Russia.
Chernov has also experienced numerous injuries including shrapnel to his left eye and legs, a smashed hand, and beatings leaving him unconscious. He has said: “You have to compromise: to show what is happening, you need to be in the center of events. If you take care of yourself, you will never take a photograph of the most important thing” (Wikipedia).
Chernov’s reporting in Mariupol earned the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and became the basis of this award-winning documentary. With more than 40 nominations, “20 Days in Mariupol” has won 18 awards, including Best Documentary from the Oscars and the Online Film Critics Society.
Chernov’s deep compassion for humanity and his dedication to truth, make this one of the best-made and most important films of our time.
Rating: 10/10
See this film for free: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/20-days-in-mariupol/ or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvAyykRvPBo
Credits
Director: Mstyslav Chernov
Producers: Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson-Rath and Deri McCrudden
Cinematography: Mstyslav Chernov and Evgeniy Maloletka
Editor: Michelle Mizner
Music: Jordan Dykstra
Production Companies: Associated Press and PBS Frontline
Release: November 21, 2023
Chernov’s website: https://www.mstyslav.com/
. . .
Join us on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/itsjustmovies!