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Oleh Sentsov on Life on Frontline of Ukraine’s War With Russia and His ‘Accidental’ Karlovy Vary-Premiering Documentary ‘Real’
The director, who's been serving in the military since Russia's 2022 invasion, captured rare, real-time footage of a Ukrainian army unit under siege.
Separated by more than a mile of no-man’s land and under a constant barrage of Russian artillery, Sentsov was the only person who could communicate with the stranded unit, their appeals for help growing more plaintive as the day wore on. The siege lasted from roughly 4 a.m. until 8 o’clock that evening; Sentsov began recording sometime around 8 a.m., his camera sweeping back and forth across the trench where he and his unit were dug in, as a soldier on the other end of the radio called for reinforcements. The director vigorously denied the accusations, at one point launching a hunger strike that lasted 145 days, while an international campaign for his release drew a coalition of governments, rights groups, industry bodies, literary luminaries and Hollywood stars.
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