Film-maker David Gutnik lasers in on the artists pushing back against Russian aggression for an inspiring yet harrowing new documentary
yiv was supposed to fall in three days. That’s what talking heads and pundits in media were saying, rather dismissively, before the February 2022 Russian invasion on. They suggested the fight would be swift and decisive but instead the Ukrainian resistance persisted. Never mind, three days. The war is now pushing towards three years.
The film-makers themselves – including Gutnik, his cinematographer, producer, composer and sound recordist, who all appear on-camera – become part of this resistance. They too are artists, after all. They’re making a film that experiments with disembodied voices and other destabilizing techniques to capture, as best as cinema can, the experience of being displaced by war.
When in 2022, Gutnik got in touch with Mytsko, she was peeling away at the old Soviet walls in the arts centre space, discovering pre-USSR murals intentionally buried behind. That act, says Gutnik, captured what he then knew his movie should focus on: “reclaiming our cultural identity and history, this sort of decolonization of ourselves and consciousness”.
Gutnik’s film doesn’t hold back when facing that horror. The images of charred and mutilated bodies that the people in his film face constantly are on display. He’s heard some audiences expressing discomfort with seeing that. Though to not show it, Gutnik suggests, would be betraying the reality and subjectivity of the people in his film, whose families and communities are the ones dying.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukraine repels missile attack on Kyiv and targets another Kursk bridgeNorth Korean weaponry believed to have been used in Kyiv attack as Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk continues
Read more »
Russia-Ukraine war live: key bridges destroyed in Kursk as Ukraine ‘leaves trail of destruction’Russia’s foreign ministry said Ukraine had likely used US-made HIMARS to destroy a bridge over the Seim river
Read more »
Ukraine-Russia war: Ukraine unleashes drones on Russian airfields in cross-border attackThe largest drone strike on Russian airfields since the war started is part of Ukraine’s advance into Russia, which has humiliated Vladimir Putin’s generals.
Read more »
Russia-Ukraine war: Secrecy was the key to Ukraine’s daring invasion of RussiaThe attack on Kursk surprised even Ukraine’s closest allies, and pushed the limits of how Western military equipment is allowed to be used on Russian soil.
Read more »
Ukraine war briefing: Cause of fire unclear at Russia-controlled nuclear plant in Ukraine, watchdog saysMoscow and Kyiv have accused each other of starting the fire at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. What we know on day 902
Read more »
Ukraine war briefing: Main fire at Russia-controlled nuclear plant in Ukraine extinguishedMoscow and Kyiv have accused each other of starting blaze at Zaporizhzhia plant; fire comes after launch of unprecedented Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Kursk region. What we know on day 901
Read more »