The war in Donbass has become the theme of a whole wave of domestic feature films. And most of them are hacky. Our filmmakers are unable to interpret reality interestingly and rethink military events. In our country, rapid response cinema is still limited to documentary short films.
A lot has been filmed about the war in Ukraine. However, reading the script for the series “Guard” by Alexei Shaparev, you grab your head. The full-length film “About People, Horses and Freaks,” knowing the previous hacky opuses of its director Igor Parfenov, does not raise hopes for a truly interesting movie. The level of skill of Akhtem Seitablayev is not much higher, who plans to begin filming a large feature film about the “cyborgs” of the Donetsk airport in August. And the first feature film filmed in the ATO zone – “Mina” by Vladimir Solovy – in its plot is reminiscent of the Balkan festival hit of the last decade.
It is today, when we so need new heroes and there is a very rapid development of national self-identification. When the information war has intensified, it is important for Ukraine to win back the media space. When our northern neighbor has already managed to release several TV series telling a version of the occupation of Crimea and the invasion of Donbass that is favorable to him. When the domestic audience misses truthful cinema and the people need unifying cultural stimuli and ideas… we are forced to reap the fruits of many years of neglect of the film industry, and, as a result, lose ground in the war for the media space.