In order to make his new doc “2,000 Meters to Andriivka,” Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov embedded with a Ukrainian platoon on a slow, deadly mission navigating minefields through two kilometers of heavily fortified forest. They were on a mission to liberate the small, Russian-occupied, village of Andriivka.
Chernov, who is also a Pulitzer-winning Associated Press journalist, had previously captured the agony of a city under siege during the first days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in his Oscar-winning doc “20 days in Mariupol.”
“2,000 Meters,” which launched from Sundance and recently played at Karlovy Vary, is a more intimate piece that uses helmet-cam footage and first-person narration to bring the spectator onto the battlefield while delving into the war’s deep psychological impact on soldiers. The brutal, centimeter-by centimeter struggle finally leads to the platoon leader, named Fedya, raising the Ukrainian flag over Andriivka.
Below, Chernov speaks to Variety about his more personal connection to this piece and why it’s critical — as Russia is intensifying its air attacks on Kyiv and the U.S. discusses halting some shipments of weapons to Ukraine — that Ukrainians realize “the only person you can rely on is right next to you.”
Andriivka is just two hours from your hometown of Kharkiv. At one point in the film you say, “I took a camera. Fydya, the platoon leader, took a gun.” Can you talk to me about your personal investment in this particular war story?
It goes all the way back to 2014 when the Russian invasion started for Ukrainians. I was filming back then. I was filming in Donbass, witnessing Russian tanks going across the border and just invading and taking Ukrainian cities, occupying Ukrainian cities and Crimea. I was a documentary photographer back then and a cameraman. The moment when the war started was an awakening for me as a documentary filmmaker. The moral transformation we all went through — me and other photographers, writers, film directors — started with the invasion of our country and with the choice that each one of us had to make: what do we do about it? Because we all sort of had to react. The most painful thing that I discovered about the world when the war came to my country is there is no justice that is given to you by some external force. Justice is something people have to fight for. Would it be different if I had chosen a different line of work? Or if I had picked up a gun? The answer is, well, I do what I do.
Every battle is emblematic in its own way. But this one seems to have a particular symbolic significance. What does it represent for you? And what would you like it to stand for for the audience?
An interesting thing is that the battle of Andriivka doesn’t mean much in big-picture terms. It’s part of a larger operation and it’s insignificant from a strategic perspective because, in the end, the counteroffensive failed. However, that’s the power of cinema, I guess. When we zoom in to something, that’s when the event or the story becomes symbolic. We looked really close at the meters and centimeters [that were conquered] and to each human life, not mere numbers. Almost nobody would even know what Andriivka is, and the names of those who lost their lives in that tiny forest, if this film did not exist. So I think what makes it symbolic is focusing on the details, on the individual human beings who put their life at stake to carry a flag to Andriivka, which at that point for Ukraine, was also a symbol of hope. We all woke up every day, turned on our TVs and our Instagrams and our Telegram channels, and we watched the news hoping that tomorrow there would be another name on the list of liberated villages and cities. That’s how the nation was. Each name had more meaning than just a liberated village. Each name represented hope that things would be better, that more land would be liberated.
The film really brings the audience into the battlefield. Talk to me about getting the helmet-cam footage and other ways in which you made it so immersive.
We tried to take the idea of bringing the audience into the soldiers’ experience to the extreme.
What’s really helpful is that current technologies allow us to push the boundaries of of documentary filmmaking to a new level. You can also see how modern warfare is changing due to new technology. Body-cam footage is widely used by all military for battlefield analysis. When we embedded with them, in the middle of the operation to liberate Andriivka, they already had a huge archive of material. Se we started looking at it and tried to unfold the story backwards. There was also a vast amount of drone footage. We tried to combine all mediums: the classic camera footage shot by me with the existing footage. Then Michelle Mizner [the film’s editor] did an amazing job to assemble it all into the structure and arc of the story. One of the battles, a 600 meter-battle, includes seven cameras, two battlefields, two drones, two cameras in the headquarters and one camera that is filming the medics. That is all edited into one immersive scene so the audience can experience everything.
When Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, it is believed that top figures in the Kremlin thought that the country would soon collapse. One thing that stood out for me about this doc is that it shows why that did not turn out to be the case. In short, because the Ukrainians have put up a formidable defense. Do you agree?
That is subconsciously what I feel. But I never put it in these words exactly. In the film, you see me interacting with the protagonist, Fydya. My perspective always seems a bit darker and less hopeful. But at the same time, I keep admiring every soldier that I met in that forest. Every soldier that was fighting through that strip of land to Andriivka and watching their motivation. Watching them not giving up on hope. Even now, I keep meeting with those who survived and they are not a bit less hopeful and strong. I think because of that Ukraine has not lost its identity, the nation has not fallen apart and Ukraine is a country that is even stronger than it was before.
Have the soldiers depicted in “2,000 Meters to Andriivka” seen the film?
A few weeks ago, I showed the film for the first time to Ukrainian audiences and all the soldiers you see in the film came — except those who have died, but their families came — so it was a very heartfelt emotional moment for everyone because many of them have seen their friends or their loved ones on screen for the first time [since they were killed]. Fydya came to see the film, then went back to his platoon in Izium. What I realized is that people who live in that town that was already occupied by Russia once, that has a history of mass graves with hundreds of people buried in the forest, those people don’t think about Donald Trump. They don’t think about America. They don’t think about Europe; Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer, or whoever. They think about the brigade that stands right outside the city of Izium. They think about Fydya and all of his fellow soldiers. And they hope they won’t leave. They hope they will stay there and the Russians will not attack.
Russia has intensified air attacks on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks. Moscow’s forces recently launched the largest drone attack on Kyiv, hours after Trump’s recent conversation with Putin. Simply put, do you consider this to be a particularly critical moment in the conflict?
Well, every single moment since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022 has been critical, and each moment has had its consequences. But I think what is critical now that is Ukrainians are realizing that the only person you can rely on is is right next to you. And the only way to survive is to build a community, build a brotherhood, build a nation that will keep resisting. My city got bombed the day before yesterday. Kyiv gets bombed almost every day by drones and ballistic missiles, and now even more because there are not enough anti air defense missiles, which there used to be. As necessary as foreign aid is for the protection of civilians and the cities, all that does not bring a nation to collapse. The stepped-up Russian attacks bring the nation together and make people feel they can rely only on each other. So I think that’s what what we’re seeing right now. But make no mistake, every single Ukrainian wants peace. It’s just that there is a realization, a slow realization underway that [peace] may not be immediate, and the Ukrainians may still need to keep fighting for it for as long as they are being attacked.
“2000 Meters to Andriivka” (Courtesy of the Associated Press)
