20 Days in Mariupol

This documentary is about as real as it gets. The film is pieced together from footage shot in Mariupol during February and March 2022. You might have already seen snippets, especially from the maternity hospital, but this takes you day by day and includes some less common materials.

I won't get into the usual critiques of quality or story flow. That would be idiotic. They captured what they could in the midst of war, when everything including electricity for their cameras was at scarce. It surprises me that some reviewers are complaining, as if this were some Hollywood production in the making for five years. Jesus.

I recommend watching it. The war is ongoing, and it won't just disappear because we're tired of it. It serves as a powerful reminder to the world about what's happening in Ukraine every day.

I saw this in a well-attended cinema screening just the other day. I can't recall a film having the impact this one did. At the end credits - silence. No one said a word and slowly filtered out. Its difficult not being effected by this film, as it confronts the viewer with the sort of hard-hitting stuff that the news generally air-brushes out. Its pretty much the exact opposite of comfort viewing - this film confirms not only are things bad but they are probably a lot worse than you imagined them to be.

As the title indicates, this is a ground level view of events in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in the first 20 days of the Russian invasion. A disembodied voice-over relates details and an ominous soundtrack magnifies certain moments but mostly, the footage speaks for itself. The basic set-up has journalist Mstyslav Chernov stay behind to film events as the horror of war escalates on a daily basis. From Chernov's position, we are put directly into the war zone and are confronted with the civilian experience. To this end, we are forced to see the terror and suffering that these innocent people are forced to endure on account of a war initiated for utterly disingenuous reasons. While this is clearly a film about the Ukrainian situation and the sheer wrongness of the Russian invasion, it also will get you thinking that it is also about war in general, as these shocking moments are happening all over our world as part of various military conflicts. We can become desensitised to this and our news reporting is often far too sanitised, allowing us to more easily disconnect. Its films like this one which approaches war in the opposite way and ensures the viewer has no easy escape.

My family moved out of Mariupol in mid-2021. We lived in between the Drama Theater and maternity hospital, across from the University. We sometimes sat outside at Coffee Racer cafe next to the hospital, drank coffee, and watched people strolling along Miru Ave.

My mother stayed behind in Mariupol. Despite the ominous warnings, nobody really expected a full-scale invasion with bombs and artillery. She lived directly across the street from hospital #2, which is where the filmmakers hid through much of the movie. In fact, her burning apartment building is the opening shot of "Day 16". The area all along Kuprina St, adjacent to the hospital and small church, sits at the very western edge of the city, which took the brunt of the attacks approaching from Crimea direction.

After surviving the initial bombings and attacks, Mom had to drink, cook, and clean herself with water from a well adjacent to shallow graves of her neighbors. Survivors chopped up furniture to burn for cooking. It was truly medieval in every way possible, and intentionally so. After 73 days trapped, she made it out by a miracle of good luck, but not before first going through Bezimmene filtration camp.

None of my family will watch this movie except me. Everything is too close and too familiar. One thing the movie does not show is how vibrant and thriving this same city had been prior to 2/24/22. It seems surreal to see your old comfortable neighborhood get intentionally destroyed on international news. To be honest, the Russians were so jealous of Mariupol that they tried to murder it. They cannot get away with this.

This is a story that absolutely needs to be seen and heard - without any sugar-coating - as painful as it may be.

It is very difficult to watch this movie. The worst thing is that it covers less then 1% of the horrors that happened in Mariupol. When the russians launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, they spared no shells and destroyed everything in their path. They destroyed entire cities, killed thousands of civilians and children. This is a real genocide of the Ukrainian people. I hope karma catches up with them. I hope the world society will do something to stop the bloody aggressor - the russia.

It is impossible to watch this movie and remain indifferent. It's very scary and it's very sad. I couldn't hold back tears the whole time I was watching the movie. I wish this had never happened, but unfortunately it is a reality, it really was. And it continues to this day.

I don't usually include reviews on documentaries on this blog, but '20 Days in Mariupol' is a documentary that needs to be seen. This is current, relevant, and illustrates the horrors of war.

On February 24th, 2022 the city of Mariupol in Ukraine still looked normal. In the words of the narrator: "Wars don't start with explosions; it starts with silence." A Journalist team captures the outbreak of war, and documents how a city is reduced to ruins and rubble within just 20 days.

There are no actors here. There's no make-up, no CGI, no green/blue screen effects, no visual effects. We get to see the events unfold through the lens of a camera of men on the run fearing for their lives - raw footage. The documentary plays like a found footage sci-fi thriller, but this is real life with real people.

'20 Days in Mariupol' is harrowing to watch, and it is heartbreaking - more so because this is not fiction or fantasy. The film had me very emotional at times, so get that box of tissues before watching this. This ain't no popcorn flick; it is a hard-hitting documentary. Yes, it is depressing - as war generally is - but the world needs to see this. I'm so glad '20 Days in Mariupol' won the Oscar for Best Documentary. The film editing was also very good.