One ddocumentary about the Russian invasion of Ukraine shown at the Venice Film Festival should serve as alert to the rest of Europe about the danger that Moscow represents, its protagonists said this Wednesday (5).
“Songs of Slow Burning Earth” directed by Look Zhurba shows the devastating impact of the conflict on the lives of ordinary Ukrainians from the moment the first Russian missiles took to the country’s skies in February 2022, to the present day, with resistance still ongoing against one of the most powerful armies in the world.
“It’s a good opportunity for other countries in the world to think and (see) what we are facing now and to be ready in the future and not be as naive as we were,” said Ganna Vasyk, a frontline Army medic who appears in the film.
Russia has repeatedly denied that it planned to attack Ukraine before President Vladimir Putin ordered tanks across the border. It has subsequently rejected suggestions that it might attack other former Soviet countries that are now part of the West.
“I think this film is very important to understand that no one can remain ignorant, because ignorance kills,” Vasyk said at a press conference before the film’s premiere.
The documentary opens with panicked calls to the Ukrainian emergency service as the first wave of Russian bombs explodes in the background.
As war looms, we see desperate civilians trying to flee the capital Kiev, while exhausted volunteers help families escape Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, which saw the worst fighting early in the conflict.
Then the camera pans through the windshield of a truck carrying the body of a dead soldier, with onlookers on the road kneeling in the snow as the coffin passes toward the crowded cemetery.
Zhurba then shows doctors trying to identify dead Ukrainian soldiers and investigators digging for a possible war crime victim. What the documentary maker never shows is blood, guts or explosions. All of that is out of view.
“If (the film) shows dead bodies or destruction, it will only shock you and will not evoke the right feeling of what war is. I think art is very weak and there is no language to explain this experience (of war),” Zhurba said.
The documentary shows the resilience of those who ended up engulfed by the conflict, whether it’s the baker who continues to work even as bombs fall nearby or soldiers who learn to walk with their new prosthetics.
*With reporting by Crispian Balmer
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This content was originally published in Documentary brings warning about the War in Ukraine to the Venice Film Festival on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil

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