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‘The Editorial Office’ Review: A Post-Truth Satire Set in Pre-Invasion Ukraine Connects with Multiple Targets

A journalist struggles to expose the truth about a forest fire in a news ecosystem riven with corruption in Roman Bondarchuk’s 'The Editorial Office.'

This apparently simple premise — the kernel at the outset of “ The Editorial Office ” — can’t begin to hint at the rugged tapestry of thematic and topical threads that Roman Bondarchuk ’s second narrative feature proceeds to weave together, the unique product of both the director’s vision and ambition, and also of the circumstances under which it gestated. As Yura attempts to interest various people in the story, most of them respond with a version of one editor’s blunt assessment that “no-one gives a shit about facts,” and a broader picture begins to unfold of a civilization collapsing into absurdity. They want to eat, drink, fuck, pray.” Yura is told that if he wants to succeed as a journalist, he needs to prioritize fabricated human-interest stories (ideally with a morbid or sexual element) and money-spinners (for example, fraudulent political puff pieces hyping the installation of a nonexistent pipeline).

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