A Ukrainian filmmaker has described his Oscar nomination for best documentary as a bittersweet moment.
The Academy Awards in January announced Mstyslav Chernov’s film “20 Days in Mariupol” as among the nominees for best documentary.
Produced by The Associated Press and PBS’ “Frontline” and directed by Chernov, the documentary covers Russia’s siege of the city of Mariupol in the first three weeks of the war in Ukraine in early 2022.
Chernov, along with photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko, had arrived in the Ukrainian city about an hour before Russia began its bombardment.
In the following days, they captured images of the physical and humanitarian effect of the attack, from the death of a 4-year-old girl and the bombing of a maternity hospital to scenes of freshly dug mass graves.
Several film critics have praised the film for its “relentless” look at the invasion.
In an interview with VOA’s Ukrainian Service, Chernov said the documentary is bigger than just what happened in Mariupol and tells the story of all the cities devastated by Russia’s attacks.
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
VOA: Congratulations on being nominated. What was your reaction when you found out about your nomination?
Mstyslav Chernov: My first thought was, “Oh my God, there is so much more work to do, and it’s [an] even bigger responsibility.” And that’s exactly how we feel, because it is a bittersweet moment, a moment to acknowledge that the world cares. And at the same time, the moment to acknowledge that this all happened, and this film exists because of the huge tragedy.
VOA: As the first Ukrainian Oscar nominee, what does this mean for you and for Ukraine?
Chernov: Again, it means more responsibility, because now I am tasked to not only carry the memory of [the] citizens of Mariupol but also to represent Ukrainian cinema.
And I wish I could represent it in a much better, more peaceful way, but this is what it is now. We are the country at war. We are the country that was attacked, and our cinema will be inevitably telling the story of that war.
It’s just become so much more than just the story of Mariupol. It became [the] story of all the Ukrainian cities that got destroyed by Russian bombs. And it became a symbol of the impact of war on the civilian population, far beyond Ukraine.
VOA: The people in Mariupol right now are under Russian occupation. As you show this film, what do you want to tell those in Mariupol?
Chernov: When residents of Mariupol who lost their city and became IDPs [internally displaced persons] saw the film and spoke to me after, I always found a lot of hope in them. It’s about a feeling of community. And also, this hope is there because they lost so much. They don’t have [the] means to explain to people exactly how terrifying, how painful, this experience was for them.
And this film is a tool for them to carry these thoughts and to show what they lived through. I’m just trying to be as truthful as possible to what we felt and to what they felt. And if we win, it’s going to be a miracle.
The fact that we survived Mariupol is already a miracle. The fact that we made this film is a miracle. The fact that … so many people around the world saw this film and didn’t walk away and understood the pain of Ukrainians is a miracle.
[This is] definitely for the people of Mariupol. This story is about them. It’s not about us. This nomination is about them.
This interview originated in VOA’s Ukrainian Service.