5 Must-See War Documentaries
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Since February 24, the “Chronicles of War, Love and Hate” project, which collects documentary video evidence about the war, has been ongoing in Ukraine.
Its authors shoot reports on acute social issues that arose during the invasion in various regions of the country – from the de-occupied Kyiv region to post-blockade Chernihiv.
“Ukrainian Pravda. Life” selected five works worthy of attention. Thanks to these videos, you can see the lives of ordinary people despite and in spite of the war.
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Rollana Bondarenko is a veteran of the Azov Special Forces. Her son Vitaly and daughter-in-law Alla Taranina died during the defense of the city of Mariupol on Azovstal.
In 2014, the family left the Donetsk region and found a new home in Mariupol among the then still volunteer Azov regiment. There, on February 24, they met the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Vitaly immediately decided that he would defend Mariupol, and wanted Alla and their son to leave for safe territory, but she sent the child with her grandfather and also went to Mariupol.
Because of his wounds, Vitaliy was hospitalized in the Azovstal bunker, where he died on April 15 during shelling. On May 8, Russian troops dropped a multi-ton bomb that penetrated 4 floors of the plant’s bunker and took Alla’s life. Now the only thing that is left of Rollana is her little grandson.
“There will be no lessons today and tomorrow”
The documentary “There will be no lessons today and tomorrow” is a portrait of the young generation of Ukrainians who were expecting a bright future, but found themselves in the midst of a great war.
Since the beginning of the school year, students of the Chernihiv school have been preparing for their dream graduation: they are sewing dresses and learning to dance the waltz. But a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine destroys their plans and their city.
Teenagers, together with their families, live in fear and uncertainty. Chernihiv is under siege for one month, one week and one day. After the retreat of Russian troops, the city recovers from what it experienced. Graduates are trying to understand why the Russians destroyed their lives and homes, and most importantly, how to live on.
The next hero of the video is Sasha, a resident of Kharkiv. He remains in the city despite the fact that he is shelled almost every day from Russian territory. Sasha’s apartment has already been hit twice by a Russian rocket. The first one took the lives of his family members – the cat Bima and birds.
He moved to the basement of a nine-story building, from the roof of which the front line is visible. He shares the basement with cats and an elderly neighbor. The man films his life on a mobile phone camera, sends the video to neighbors in evacuation and acquaintances living in the Russian Federation.
The footage included in the tape was shot in different periods during three months of 2022 in Kharkiv. Sometimes Sashko and his colleague Maria Shevchenko sat all night on a high-rise building to film Russian rockets flying from Belgorod to Kharkiv.
The war forced hundreds of families apart, so the following story is about a couple who were separated by the war. From the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Victoria began to deal with humanitarian aid, and Yura was preparing to go to the front. They immediately decided to get married. The RACs have days for marriage registration, and there are also death documentation. Yuri and Victoria did not have time to wait, so they came on the day of the death registry and begged to seal their marriage.
For Victoria, the only way to see her husband was to come to the military unit as a volunteer. She did not prepare for the wedding, but handed over ammunition, food and everything necessary to fight on the front lines. This video is their farewell at the train station.
The documentary video tells about women and children who cross the Polish border to escape from Russian troops and enemy missiles. Sometimes they stand in line for hours, from morning to evening. The children are exhausted and confused. Volunteers are trying to provide everyone with food and warm clothes to make crossing the border easier.
Many women do not have the opportunity to go abroad because they cannot leave older relatives who cannot travel long distances, or they do not want to go without sons who have gone to war. Wives, daughters, and mothers must leave the country on their own, since, according to the law, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave. At the border, people organize cars and buses to take Ukrainians to the refugee center in Poland and find them a new home.
These video works are part of the large theater project “Chronicles of War, Love and Hate”, which tell about Ukrainian men and women from different regions of Ukraine against the background of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Films and video reports of WE: media theater are published in various media, for example in OKO.press (Poland), NZZ Format (Switzerland), EURACTIV, SME.SK (Slovakia), MNews (Taiwan), 4 Channel and Lyfta (UK).
Read also: “Probably they said something that he could not survive.” The story of a father of 10 children who was found hanged after being interrogated by the occupiers
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