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‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’ Review: A Shattering Expedition to the Frontline of the War in Ukraine
Mstyslav Chernov follows up '20 Days in Mariupol' with '2000 Meters From Andriivka,' a tense portrayal of an ailing military counteroffensive.
Two years ago, Ukrainian journalist and filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov premiered “20 Days in Mariupol,” a bruisingly effective, ultimately Oscar-winning immersion into civilian panic and terror in the first weeks of the Russian invasion in 2022: a tough, in-the-moment watch, colored by raw trauma, but also a streak of fighting fury. Stark title cards count down the remaining distance as the brigade — accompanied by Chernov and fellow AP journo Alex Babenko, equipped with bodycams — inch their way down this purgatorial path to freedom, often holing up in trenches as they await a go-ahead, gunfire rattling back and forth over their heads. In at least one upsettingly candid shot, a soldier dies before our eyes, while others are grievously wounded; even a doughty unit leader like Fedya, a 24-year-old former warehouse worker who describes his mission as “to fight, not serve,” is as vulnerable as the rest of them, at one point requiring hospitalization before plunging straight back into the danger zone.
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