Film Review: '20 Days in Mariupol'
People take shelter in a youth theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 6, 2022.
Still from FRONTLINE PBS and AP’s feature film ‘20 Days in Mariupol.’
CREDIT: (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)
20 Days in Mariupol opens with a chilling scene: Russians are closing in around a hospital where director Mstyslav Chernov and numerous citizens have taken shelter alongside scores of injured. A Ukrainian police officer calls for backup over the radio. A Russian tank slowly turns its turret toward the window from which the camera is filming. It is a brilliant placement of footage—a succinct illustration of the terror of war, encapsulated in just a few seconds.
Chernov, a Ukrainian war correspondent, journalist, filmmaker, and novelist, found himself trapped in Mariupol with several colleagues after heading straight into the city at the very start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Mariupol lies only 35 miles from the border. The resulting scene would later be described by the Red Cross as “apocalyptic;” confirmed deaths number approximately 25,000–a conservative estimate that contradicts residents’ count of over 100,000. This occurred in just one city in Ukraine; the devastation is astounding.
The film backs up to chronological order as Chernov takes the viewer along with him from day one of his arrival to Mariupol. Throughout the documentary are interactions that sear the soul; a doctor stands over a dead four-year-old girl and says, “Film how these motherfuckers are killing civilians. Show this Putin bastard the eyes of this child and all these doctors who are crying;” a woman collapses into the arms of her husband as they learn their 18-month-old has not survived a bombing; Chernov sets the camera down, still rolling, to step away as a father wails over the body of his 16-year-old son who was killed while playing soccer in a park. These moments tear at the heart, and could easily make the documentary too overwhelming to absorb. But a steady course punctuates the terror: a true hero’s journey.
Chernov and his team must get the footage of these atrocities out into the world. They are the only journalists left in the city, the only connection to the international media, the only official documentarians of proof of war crimes. When Russia cuts the city’s internet (alongside its electricity, water, heat, and all humanitarian aid), Chernov is the keeper of these horrific memories, the guardian of truth. 20 Days in Mariupol is not only the story of violent devastation, but also of a scarred resilience—that of Chernov, his team, the medical workers of the city, the Ukrainian defense forces, and the citizens of Mariupol.
20 Days in Mariupol is now streaming via PBS and can be watched here.
Review by Kate Zaliznock