‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’ Review: A Shattering Expedition to the Frontline of the War in Ukraine

variety.com:

Guy Lodge Film Critic As Russia’s unconscionable war on Ukraine wears on, the local and global response to it has shifted from shock to fury to numbed despair — and the already substantial library of documentaries made in response to it has likewise varied in focus and tenor.

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.

Now, Chernov follows up that unrepeatable work with “2000 Meters to Andriivka” — an ostensible companion piece, as indicated by its similar numerical title, and another full-tilt, you-are-there plunge into the living hell of war, this time from the perspective of Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline.

Like its predecessor, this is an angry, viscerally illustrative film — but it’s a weary one too, occasionally narrating its first-hand view of military combat with the jaundiced sense of futility that comes with living through long-term conflict.