Venice Documentaries Attempt to Reckon With Russia’s ‘Historical, Transformative, Apocalyptic’ War in Ukraine
variety.comChristopher Vourlias When Russian troops invaded Ukraine in the early hours of Feb. 24, 2022, documentary filmmaker Olha Zhurba was seized by an “apocalyptic feeling” that life as she knew it had come to an end.
Her first impulse was to take her camera onto the streets of Kyiv to record history as it unfolded. “I just understood that I want to be here, in the middle of this historical, transformative, apocalyptic time in Ukraine,” Zhurba tells Variety.
Several hundred miles away, Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova, who was working as a part-time news producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Moscow bureau, was shooting a segment on the Russia-Ukraine border when news of the invasion broke.
Her team continued filming a live hit on their hotel balcony as Trofimova went back to her room, reeling from the “profound shock” of what Russian President Vladimir Putin characterized as a “special military operation.” Hours later, she woke “with this incredible feeling that your life, yourself and your identity is completely broken.
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