THE STORY – A Ukrainian platoon’s mission: traverse a heavily fortified mile of forest to liberate a strategic village from Russian forces. A journalist accompanies them, witnessing the ravages of war and the growing uncertainty about its conclusion.
THE CAST – N/A
THE TEAM – Mstyslav Chernov (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 107 Minutes
Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov stunned audiences with his Oscar-winning debut, the documentary “20 Days in Mariupol.” Now, he’s back with another non-fiction look at Russia’s attack on his country, this time taking a much more focused approach. Where “20 Days in Mariupol” was an all-encompassing look at the belligerent nation’s invasion of Ukraine, “2000 Meters to Andriivka” explores a more singular perspective. Using mostly soldiers’ helmet cam footage, along with drone footage and moments captured in tactical war rooms, Chernov follows a Ukrainian platoon as they embark on an extremely dangerous mission in September 2023. This powerful documentary places viewers as close to the front line of battle as they’ll likely ever get – if they’re lucky.
The battalion at the film’s center is tasked with liberating the small village of Andriivka from occupying Russian forces. To do this, they must travel 2000 meters through a long line of sparse forest framed on either side by minefields. With death likely on both sides of the woods, they have to traverse approximately 1.25 miles through terrain that offers them little cover from the enemy.
It’s a small group that sets out on this mission, and with only occasional help from the command center and their drones, they all quite literally have each other’s lives in their hands. Chernov is on the ground with them, as well as providing an even, low-spoken narration that sets an appropriately somber tone. He offers military clarity to the audience, along with grimly prophetic explanations of what will happen to the soldiers we meet who won’t make it out of this endeavor alive. It gives the mission, and the war in general, a feeling of misfortunate hopelessness that emphasizes just how dire the situation is for Ukrainians.
The first-person footage Chernov extracts from the soldiers stretches the very definition of “harrowing.” Indeed, the film is so upsettingly action-packed that it’s hard not to get caught up in the occasional thrills of battle. But Chernov’s unsparing vision constantly reminds viewers that this conflict is very real, very dangerous, and very distressing. Soldiers – both Ukrainian and Russian – drop dead before our very eyes in a way that’s a direct rebuke of Hollywood’s glamorization of war. In this film, death is sudden and scary and offers no lesson. This merciless perspective of mortality is further underlined by the remaining soldiers’ necessarily matter-of-fact reactions to their friends being killed. “2000 Meters” even portrays how death is quickly accepted by those facing it, as one soldier on the brink of life monotonically states, “That’s it for me.” Chernov shows how war removes the possibility of humanity from such an uncommon but upsetting reality as death.
The footage collected is appropriately unvarnished (and some of the drone shots of the camouflaged soldiers are understandably hard to discern). This is a film made up of mostly browns and grays, showing not only the toll that war takes on humans but also on the scourged earth that the Ukrainians are defending with their lives. “2000 Meters to Andriivka” is a shocking and absolutely necessary look at the unnecessary brutality of war that doesn’t offer audiences any reprieve or absolution. If less than two hours of war experience from the removal of a camera is tough, it’s practically impossible to imagine how unendingly difficult it must be for those who’ve been experiencing it for years.
