As the war in Ukraine continues, The World’s Host Marco Werman speaks with filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov about the new documentary “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” produced by our partners at FRONTLINE and The Associated Press. The post New film shows reality on the ground as Ukrainians battle for the village of Andriivka appeared first on The World from PRX.
US and Ukrainian officials wrapped up talks in Geneva today. Both sides said they’d made “progress” on a plan to end the war.
It’s still not clear exactly what has been agreed to, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described this juncture as “critical.”
A joint statement issued today by European foreign policy officials does mention security guarantees for Ukraine. It says, “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine … will shape European security for generations.” And it concludes that “peace cannot be achieved by yielding to or rewarding the aggressor.”
Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said the talks were a step in the right direction.
Meanwhile, the fighting on Ukraine’s front line has not let up. A new film, “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” which premiers Tuesday night on PBS, shows what that actually looks like. It was produced by our partners at FRONTLINE and The Associated Press — the team that previously made the Oscar-winning documentary “20 Days in Mariupol.”
Filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov spoke with The World’s Host Marco Werman earlier this month about the new film that he shot on the frontlines, mostly in 2023.
Marco Werman: What were you hoping to accomplish with telling the story of this fighting?
Mstyslav Chernov: I followed several platoons, but one of them, their task was to liberate a very small village on the outskirts of Bakhmut. And in order to do that, they needed to cross this tiny forest surrounded by minefields, which is only one mile long. But it was so heavily fortified, and the battles were so hard that it took them almost three months to do that.
Yeah, I mean, the geography of the story is really important. The way into Andriivka is through a 2,000-meter strip of forest, a very narrow strip of forests, which we see in this very impressive drone shot at the start of the film, surrounded on both sides by minefields popped with craters. In one part of the film, where you head out with the soldiers, you mention that a soldier says, “It’s like landing on a planet where everything is trying to kill you but it’s not another planet … it’s the middle of Europe.” So, describe the terrain, Mstyslav, of this forest and the fighting that you saw there.
It did feel like another planet. And, you know, the thing is that this land, these fields, this little forest that are splitting fields, they are so familiar to me. This is the land of my childhood. Those are the same places you go to see your grandmother, who lives in a village just like Andriivka. Those are the fields where you run and those are the forests where you play hide-and-seek with your childhood friends.
And then you arrive there and you see them all scarred with trenches, mutilated with craters from the bombs, and there’s constant buzzing of drones trying to drop a grenade on you. There is constant whistling of bullets and shells over your head. You just move through that terrain and you’re trying to recognize something that you know, but you can’t. And that makes you so angry, that makes you want to tell [the] story of that land.
And the saddest part is that when you cross that forest, when you walk all this way with the soldiers, and then when you arrive to the village, then you realize that the village is also destroyed by war, destroyed by bombs and what they are liberating is the name and the symbol.
And then you arrive there and you see them all scarred with trenches, mutilated with craters from the bombs, and there’s constant buzzing of drones trying to drop a grenade on you. There is constant whistling of bullets and shells over your head. You just move through that terrain and you’re trying to recognize something that you know, but you can’t. And that makes you so angry, that makes you want to tell [the] story of that land.
And the saddest part is that when you cross that forest, when you walk all this way with the soldiers, and then when you arrive to the village, then you realize that the village is also destroyed by war, destroyed by bombs and what they are liberating is the name and the symbol.
Yeah, you’re kind of anticipating the end of the film. What was the strategic importance of recapturing this village? I mean, the population is what, a couple of thousands?
The population of Andriivka, no, it’s like maybe a hundred people, it is a very small village, but it’s on the road. And that is one of the roads that are big supply roads to Bakhmut, a city that Ukrainians lost to Russian occupation several months before that, they lost it in May 2023, and it was a big loss and a symbolic loss because Bakhmut was holding for more than a year, so to take it back was part of the counter-offensive goal.
A stepping stone to get back more territory further to the east, is that right?
Yes, yes. Being able to liberate Bakhmut, being able to liberate villages around it would be a big win for Ukraine.
Through this three-month slog for Ukrainian soldiers to get to this village of Andriivka, you show long uninterrupted minutes of scenes of fighting — machine guns, grenades. You’re listening for drones. You move from trench to trench. What do you want viewers to take away from seeing this?
You know in the very beginning, again, I thought very much about my own community, about the soldiers who, in normal life, if the war wasn’t there, would be my friends, would be my colleagues, one of them is from the rival university, you know, so just connection with these men and trying to tell their story and their perspective and their struggle and trying to show how Ukrainians really pushed back.
But over the year, it became so much more and some of them, unfortunately, died later and it became so important for me to save their stories for their families. I think it’s very important for all of us to see what the realistic experience of soldiers [is], how unacceptable, how terrible the war is, what modern warfare is right now. So, potentially what American soldiers would go through, and potentially what European soldiers would go through if Russia attacks Europe. So, it tells more than the story of Ukrainian soldiers. Right now, it tells the story of what could happen to any of us if the world slides to war.
But over the year, it became so much more and some of them, unfortunately, died later and it became so important for me to save their stories for their families. I think it’s very important for all of us to see what the realistic experience of soldiers [is], how unacceptable, how terrible the war is, what modern warfare is right now. So, potentially what American soldiers would go through, and potentially what European soldiers would go through if Russia attacks Europe. So, it tells more than the story of Ukrainian soldiers. Right now, it tells the story of what could happen to any of us if the world slides to war.
Yeah, modern war technology with World War I trench-to-trench battles. The Ukrainian troops do eventually make it to Andriivka. Describe what they found when they got there.
They make it to Andriivka and it is horrifying because, while Russians are retreating from Andriivka, they are indiscriminately firing on it with artillery, just because Ukrainians are now in it and they are destroying whatever was left of it. And there is hardly a place to raise the flag.
And so, we are sitting in this basement and we’re pounded by artillery. Strikes and stones from the remains of the house falling on our helmets, and we’re just waiting for artillery to stop hitting us, to run out and film how the Commander “Fedia” raises the flag over the village. And that’s liberating in one way, in a way that the goal was finally achieved and it’s sad at the same time, because the village is destroyed.
But you see the optimism there is in the eyes of these soldiers. You see optimism, irrational optimism, and you hear the rational optimism in their words when they say, “This is all going to be rebuilt, this village will be rebuilt one day.” And I truly believe that it will take a lot of time.
And so, we are sitting in this basement and we’re pounded by artillery. Strikes and stones from the remains of the house falling on our helmets, and we’re just waiting for artillery to stop hitting us, to run out and film how the Commander “Fedia” raises the flag over the village. And that’s liberating in one way, in a way that the goal was finally achieved and it’s sad at the same time, because the village is destroyed.
But you see the optimism there is in the eyes of these soldiers. You see optimism, irrational optimism, and you hear the rational optimism in their words when they say, “This is all going to be rebuilt, this village will be rebuilt one day.” And I truly believe that it will take a lot of time.
Was that the victory these soldiers were expecting? I mean, liberating an abandoned, destroyed village?
I think the victory for a soldier is fulfilling their task and giving hope. The picture of the flag is almost as important as the liberated village itself, because they know that the picture of the flag will go so far, will go to every home in Ukraine, to millions of people, and will give these millions of people hope.
They’re not fighting for the village, they’re fighting for their home. If I had to fight for a house that I built with my hands and somebody came and destroyed it, I would still fight for the ruins until the end because that is where I grew up. That is where my family lived. And there is no other answer to that.
They’re not fighting for the village, they’re fighting for their home. If I had to fight for a house that I built with my hands and somebody came and destroyed it, I would still fight for the ruins until the end because that is where I grew up. That is where my family lived. And there is no other answer to that.
You get to this village where there’s basically no life, I mean 200 some odd people, all gone. Except in a odd contrast, the soldiers find a cat.
Let’s say, despite of all the destruction, all the sadness and loss, there is one little ray of hope, ray of sun that the soldiers find there in that village. And I think that’s the symbol of that hope, of the ability of humans, not just Ukrainians, of the amazing ability of humans to find hope, even in total destruction.
Let’s talk about how this film was shot. From the perspective of being in the trenches, it has an eerie parallel, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, with realistic war films, but those are dramatized. This film is not, it’s real. Technically speaking, how did you shoot this?
Yes, this film has a quite interesting structure. It combines both body cam, helmet camera footage and the footage that was shot with my camera when I was in the trenches. And so, we switch from one perspective to another perspective throughout the film as we walk through the forest and we flash back to the battles that were happening in the places where we were walking through. And that gives us a possibility to bring [in] the audience like never before. You are able not just to witness what the real war is these days, but also kind of experience it with your body, looking through the eyes of soldiers.
The soldier body cams are obviously a rich source of incredible video. Why do Ukrainian soldiers have helmet cams?
They have it for the purpose of the battlefield analysis. They have it for the purposes of putting it to their own YouTube channels. Almost every brigade has its presence in social networks, and they put out the videos they shoot for their subscribers, for people who support them. Our job was to add more cameras to them and make sure we have all the materials that our protagonist were shooting.
Mstyslav, in case it wasn’t obvious so far I just want to pause and relate to our listeners just what you were confronting and your team as you film these Ukrainian soldiers because for a fraction of these three months you were also in the sights of the drones and the suicide drones and the Russians, as you point out, don’t care if you’re wearing the navy blue media flak jackets, correct?
They don’t just not care, they would target you if you are. A journalist is a priority target, especially the camera that follows the flag. The war is happening on two levels, in the media space and in the physical space. And a picture of the flag is more important historically, and from the moral point of view, strategic point of view, than the actual flag of the village. And so, they would target you. They would kill you if they know you’re there. And you see that in the past months, there have been five journalists that have been already killed in Ukraine. And most of them have been killed by drones, so the pilots knew that they were targeting journalists. And they’re killing specifically someone with a camera.
The front line in Ukraine, it’s about 800 miles long. You show us what it’s like to fight for about one mile. Are you putting reality to this clinical phrase we hear sometimes, a war of attrition?
Of course it is a war of attrition. Of course that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m try to show what is defined for one mile of land. And that actually just shows how committed they are to protecting their homes and how inspiring it is. They’re not afraid of hundreds of thousands of soldiers that Russia is ready to throw on Ukrainian land to gain another kilometer, another mile. They’re fighting back for their own homes. And I think it’s just sad that it’s happening. It’s just sad that this dark, violent army is every day eating more and more and more of land that I call home, that we all call home, and destroys more and more and more cities. But at the same time, seeing Ukraine survive, seeing it survive as a nation, as a community, gives me hope.
Your previous documentary on Ukraine, “20 days in Mariupol,” this one, “2,000 meters to Andriivka,” I mean, if we go back to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, this conflict has been measured in days and meters, and like your film shows us, it seems to go nowhere. Is this film a microcosm of the whole war?
I strongly disagree with you here. You say it’s going nowhere, but I have to tell you that if you think about this war as a conflict or invasion or a contest for kilometers, that seems to go nowhere. But remember this, this is a war for survival. Russians are just there to get more land and for them it seems to be going nowhere. But Ukrainians are there to survive. This is just a pure fight for life. Someone came to kill you and you are trying to survive and make sure that you and your family are not killed. That is not a war for kilometers. There is not a war that doesn’t make sense. It is actually a war where you either live or you die, and Ukrainians are choosing to fight for their lives. It’s just a matter of perspective. It’s a matter of survival for each of us. And if we give up, then we die. And I don’t want to die. I don’t want my family to die, I don’t want my community to die, I don’t want my city to be occupied. And so, yeah, it is what it is. It is terrible. But, at least we’re alive.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
The post New film shows reality on the ground as Ukrainians battle for the village of Andriivka appeared first on The World from PRX.
