The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the most talked about issue right now. People are keeping their eyes on newspapers and tv channels to understand the nature of the conflict, origin and the underlying causes.
There are plenty of podcasts, books, and documentaries on the subject. However, floods of news and analysis, talk shows and reports can make you feel burdened.
Nevertheless, there’s an easier way to understand the depth of the conflict through watching movies and tv shows made on this topic as fretting over news 24/7 might get tiring and monotonous.
Here we suggest 4 such films that can take you deep into the conflict of the two nations while not burdening you with an overflow of information.
'Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom' (2015)
This documentary from Evgeny Afineevsky is based on the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine, the protests that were sparked by the Ukrainian government’s 2014 decision to suspend the signing of a trade agreement with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Vladimir Putin’s Russia — a key chapter in the lead-up to the Russian invasion that began Thursday.
The documentary focuses on the student protests, which were initially about Ukraine’s decision not to sign a trade agreement became a protest calling for the resignation of the then pro-Russian president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.
The Documentary features the origin of Euromaidan, the Deadly crackdown on students by the government forces, and the aftermath of Euromaidan.
While Euromaidan had a kind of happy ending to the protests, Yanukovych was forced to resign and flee the country after the demonstrations, which saw the old-style pro-Russian leadership replaced with a generation that wanted to foster closer ties to the West.
Unsurprisingly, such a move angered the Kremlin, which refused to recognise Ukraine's new government, resulting in the Annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The Euromaidan protest, or more ‘Maidan revolution,’ is the beginning of the deteriorating relationships between Russia and Ukraine and a turning point of Ukrainian history, making the documentary even more relevant today. This documentary is available to stream on Netflix.
'Homeward' (2019)
Ukraine filmmaker Nariman Aliev gained world recognition when he premiered this movie in Cannes.
The film features Mustafa and his younger son, Alim, making a road trip from Ukraine to Crimea to bury their deceased son/elder brother, Nazim, who died fighting the Russians.
Mustafa has family roots in Crimea’s much-oppressed Muslim Tatar ethnic minority and feels he must transport Nazim’s body across the country to bury him in his ancestral homeland.
So begins a road trip across Ukraine that becomes increasingly fractious and action-filled.
Ukraine’s Tatars endured unspeakable atrocities during the Soviet era, and with Crimea back under Russian occupation since 2014, they face a fresh wave of persecution today. In this movie, The Russian imperial power remains the unwritten villain.
‘Mr. Jones’(2019)
Mr. Jones is a biographical movie loosely based on a British Journalist, Gareth Jones, who travels to the Soviet Union in 1933 to uncover the truth behind Holodomor, an artificial famine in which millions of Ukrainians died.
Holodomor was declared as a genocide by the Ukrainian Government. Still, the Russian government denied any such claim to date. This incident remains as the scarred history between both nations.
‘Crimea as it was’(2016)
Eight years ago, Ukraine found itself in a tumultuous situation as Russia had invaded Crimea and illegally annexed the peninsula.
Ukraine was still reeling from the Euromaidan Revolution, and Russia moved quickly to annex Crimea, the biggest land-grab in Europe since World War II.
Ukrainian forces in Crimea did not know how to respond to the invasion due to the lack of orders from Ukraine’s high commanders. Unfortunately, some Ukrainian servicemen opted to betray Ukraine amid the crisis.
However, many service members were against crossing Ukraine and remained loyal. This film is a story of the officers, soldiers and seamen who did not betray their oath of loyalty to the Ukrainian people during the takeover of Crimea.
While these movies are not guaranteed to be factually correct, they will give you an idea about Ukraine-Russia relationships now and during Soviet rule.
Some honourable mentions are director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Reflection(2021) and Atlantis(2019), both of which are based on the war of Donbas.
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