This years winner for Best Documentary Feature was the right choice. In an increasingly uncertain world, the documentary branch has now had the opportunity two years in a row to bestow honors on documentaries that aim to bring focus to Russia’s extermination of Ukraine, first through a feature about Putin’s greatest opposition, who has since died in a Russian prison from “sudden death syndrome”, and now through 20 Days In Mariupol, which has a few journalists capturing the beginning of Russia’s strike on Ukraine.
I couldn’t imagine voting for anything else, and there were some terrific documentaries. It is harrowing footage, capturing real chaos, real death, and the ever present sense of an uncertain tomorrow. no one set out to make “20 Days In Mariupol”, but by keeping the cameras there as long as they could, they captured the devastation, hopelessness, and also determination and resilience in the face of fear itself that embodies the citizen of Mariupol, and the fighting Ukraine spirit in general.
If you access this through Amazon as a rental or purchase, it will have audio description. The description is so important, even if this is a hard watch to get through. The whole point is the unflinching awareness of the atrocities on display. I’m not a huge fan of the narrator choice, as it is almost so flat it feels disconnected in an uncomfortable way from the events on screen. However, the written script for that description (which must have been taxing to write) perfectly captures the intensity on display.
Grading this feels wrong. Bestowing it an Oscar seems like the least we can do. It feels like it needs something else all together, like some Medal of Freedom honor.I can’t imagine ever wanting to put myself through this film again, but this journalist risked his life to bring us this footage, and the film itself doesn’t hold back. It is very unflinching in its portrayal of the horrors of war, and serves as a stark reminder to all that we need to be doing better. We cannot just sit by and let the people of Ukraine and their country disappear.
