The article discusses three impactful films in the World Cinema Documentary Competition that portray the grim realities of conflict. Mstyslav Chernov's '2000 Meters From Andriivka' captures the Ukrainian counteroffensive while showcasing combat's intimate tragedies, but struggles with its detached presentation. 'Cutting Through Rocks' features a progressive politician in a conservative Iranian village, highlighting women's struggles for improvement. Lastly, the Sudanese film collective's 'Khartoum' artfully uses green screen to tell the stories of displaced individuals, celebrating resilience amidst war. Together, these documentaries offer profound insights into human experiences shaped by violence.
While the battle footage is harrowing and Chernov's focus on the minutiae of combat violence is as relentless as war itself, for most of the film this style manages to render something as intimate as a young man's death as empty as a video game.
His latest film begins inside a trench during the Ukrainian counteroffensive as a series of battalions seek to liberate the village of Andriivka.
This is not helped by Chernov's whisper-like voiceover and Sam Slater's overbearing score, which aim for poetry but are ultimately shallow and overwrought.
Cameras strapped to the helmets of soldiers give the film's opening sequence a 'Call of Duty' style and a strange impersonal distance that it struggles to overcome.
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