With today’s news, Modern Times Review has put together an ongoing list of documentaries featured across our pages highlighting the conflict from all its angles. Put together over the years from our team of writers, we look at the film’s highlighting Ukraine dynamics on the ground and in a constant struggle, Russian justification for its aggression, and the military industrial complex behind NATO that stirs it all.
We also take this time to think of our friends at DocuDays UA, Ukraine’s largest Human Rights Festival, and those at Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival.
Ukraine
Donbass (dir. Sergey Loznitsa)
Loznitsa’s journey through the Donbass region is composed of a series of crazy adventures in which the grotesque and the tragic merge.
Like Dew in the Sun (dir. Peter Entell)
After centuries of hatred, violence, and massacres, Ukraine is yet again at war.
Long Echo (dir. Lukasz Lakomy, Veronika Glasunowa)
Following a Tanzanian taxi driver in a small town in the Donetsk province in Ukraine, Long Echo offers a fresh view on a story that has all-but disappeared from the daily news bulletins of European media outlets.
The Diviners (dir. Roman Bordun)
A kaleidoscopic portrait of a strange and divided nation behind the scenes.
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (dir. Iryna Tsilyk)
Through their collective artistic project, a single mother and her four children cope with life inside a war zone.
This Rain Will Never Stop (dir. Alina Gorlova)
Fleeing one war and entering into another, the grief and uncertainty of one Syrian family beg the question: what drives a person to serve a country that doesn’t always appreciate the sacrifice?
Trenches (dir. Loup Bureau)
French war journalist Loup Bureau directs an immersive cinematic journey through the last conflict on European soil.
Russia
Oleg’s War (dir. Elena Volochine, James Keogh)
The little-seen world of Russian volunteers fighting in Ukrainian rebel provinces.
Their Own Republic (dir. Aliona Polunina)
Causing quite a fury at upon its release due to its pro-Russian stance, Oleg’s War nonetheless offers an interesting insight into the side of the Ukrainian conflict rarely portrayed in western media.
More on Russia & Vladimir Putin
[BOOKS] Money, Power and the Myths of the Cold War (aut. Tony Wood)
Putin will leave the Kremlin one day – but don’t expect that to change things, argues Tony Wood in his well-researched thesis on power and continuity in today’s Russia.
F@ck This Job (dir. Vera Krichevskaya)
The story of Russia’s last national independent TV news station.
Far Eastern Golgotha (dir. Julia Sergina)
A rough but cheerful taxi driver and vlogger becomes an unlikely dissident in Russia’s eastern corner.
Electing Russia (dir. Alexander Rastorguev)
Electing Russia reflects a depressing picture of Kremlin opposition.
Immortal (dir. Ksenia Okhapkina)
Though the communist era may be over, the ideology of serving the motherland is still very much alive as an ideal for indoctrination.
Putin’s Witnesses (dir. Vitaly Mansky)
A glimpse into Vladimir Putin‘s rise to power – from his early promises of media freedom to the flagrant disregard of democratic norms.
The Case (dir. Nina Guseva)
The very heart of the legal nihilism created during the long rule of Vladimir Putin.
The Foundation Pit (dir. Andrey Gryazev)
Online video as a contemporary form of political expression and a plea against censorship in Russia.
The Trial: The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov (dir. Askold Kurov)
Askold Kurov investigates the context of the trial of Oleg Sentsov, charged with leading an anti-Russian terrorist movement in Crimea during the events following March 2014.
Victory Day (Den’ Pobedy) (dir. Sergei Loznitsa)
Contrasting the sombre with the celebratory at the yearly pro-Russia gathering on Victory Day at the Soviet Memorial in Berlin.
We Are Russia (dir. Alexandra Dalsbaek)
The youthful energy and optimism of Russia’s young opposition activists comes up against the cruel boundaries of an uncaring state.
NATO
Soldiers (dir. Willem Konrad, Christian von Brockhausen)
As Germany switches its military apparatus more akin to the USA, it is those without opportunity and means frequently finding themselves on the frontlines.
[EDITORIAL] Our Cherished NATO (by Truls Lie)
On its 70-year birthday, the NATO-led military-industrial complex can congratulate itself with a world that spends more than 1800 billion dollars in preparation for war.
