20 jours à Marioupol

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.

As heart wrenching a film as you're ever likely to see; you will be overwhelmed with disbelief that in the 21st Century the sights and sounds captured by Mstyslav Chernov's camera and microphone can actually take place; that innocent children, women and men can be forced to endure such torment and turmoil, by an aggressor who has no concern for the rules of engagement during times of conflict, and is clearly targeting the most vulnerable citizens of a city that's been battered and beaten continually by munitions of destruction, where even the hospitals are open season for razing. Not long ago it was Syria, For Sama, and there is a common denominator.

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.

I was very lucky to attend a sold-out screening of 20 Days in Mariupol in Boston that Mstyslav Chernov himself attended. This is a must-see, brutally honest and beautifully told documentary that portrays the naked evil and barbarity of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine from a deeply human standpoint. Chernov's voice as a storyteller is achingly Ukrainian, and the film's tone and editing evoke a sort of spiritual pain that exceeds the material destruction of war.

20 Days has a very strong edit that leaves in moments of Chernov's camera falling by his side as he's resting or unable to film: these moments add extra depth of realism and transport the audience into the warzone, not just watching some polished news report. There is almost a "found footage" quality to the edit and frantic first-person shaky cam scenes, but this film is much scarier and more disturbing than any horror movie could be because it's the truth, and to this very moment Mariupol is occupied by the same ruzzian butchers seen in this documentary.

The music and sound are another highlight-- the film ends on images of russian occupation set to a disturbing, pulse-like tone. The music throughout by Jordan Dykstra compliments the scenes greatly and elevates the film's tone, both in highly disturbing war scenes and in moments of bleak, depressing stillness.

20 Days in Mariupol is a cultural and historical document that should absolutely be shown in schools, especially in the West, so non-Ukrainian people can finally begin to understand the brutal, colonial and genocidal nature of russian imperialism. Mstyslav Chernov is nothing short of a hero in my eyes, and an incredibly brave and profoundly-spoken human being.

Watch this film and show it to as many people as you can.

I think this documentary needs to be added on YouTube and watched for free, specially in Russia! Everyone have to see how russian army killed civilians, women, children. This documentary is an evidence of the war!

I was crying heavily during all movie. I was always thinking "what happened to the people who were caught on camera? Are they alive? What happened to this little girl which was born? Did this man got to his wife? Did the boy survived? What happened to a policeman? Is he still alive? How about this doctor who was shouting about Putin? Where is he? Is he ok? What about these military men? " I couldn't stop thinking about these people!