“He Preaches Humanity. I Think That’s His Religion”: ‘Francesco’ Director Evgeny Afineevsky On Healing Message Of Pope Francis

deadline.com:

As a documentarian Evgeny Afineevsky has spent years immersed in turbulent conflict zones, in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe.

His 2015 Oscar-nominated film Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, put him in the middle of the Ukrainian Revolution.“I witnessed positive things [in Ukraine]–unity in Maidan Square in Kyiv, interfaith dialogue, which happened in front of my eyes,” he notes. “But at the same time, in the 21st century, in the middle of European Union, people being killed by snipers on the streets, a horrifying moment in history.”From there he turned his attention to the hideous civil war in Syria, making his 2017 film Cries From Syria.“I experienced what it is to be in the frontline of war,” he tells Deadline, “what it