By Brian Susbielles

One of the best films of the year is Warfare from Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, the latter being a former US Marine who made the film entirely based on memory of a singular battle. Every sound, every cry, every beat, everything came from Mendoza’s knowledge of one particular fight in Iraq, meaning no one can try to say how fake and overdramatic it is when it’s by an actual soldier of the battle. The man lived it. How about living another battle from as ground zero as one can be? If the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Days in Mariupol puts us right in the beginning of war, then Mstyslav Chernov, who directed Mariupol and follows it with the most daunting of current war footage today, sends us in the middle of the war that staggers on to this very moment.

The titular location of Andriivka is a village where a major route for Russian soldiers goes through and so capturing the village cuts off one major roadway for the invaders. 2000 meters, or 1.25 miles, isn’t a lot, but from where Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade stands, it’s a massive gauntlet that they have failed again and again to recapture as it is fortified going through a strip of forest to get there. The townspeople have fled and so it is a base the Russians use and they know Ukraine is looking to retake the village. In increments, we watch the brigade go through the bushes, through the trees, and have bullets whizzing by them every moment with little cover. There’s no R&R in this small piece of territory that is crucial.  

We get to know some of the platoon by their code names, where they are from, and why they decided to give up their comforts to go to the front lines. We don’t get to know too closely and for good reason: some of them will be killed in the future as Chernov narrates. For one person, they are presumed dead as his body was never found in a later battle. Another dies in a drone attack. But, the worst of all, within inches of our eyes, one soldier falls dead and his comrade who breaks the news over the radio is the victim of said drone attack months later. A gunshot, no blood and guts coming out, but the soldier falls face-first with no ounce of life in him anymore. Then, we fast forward to his funeral and witness the flow of tears from the hometown of this fallen soldier, already more than fifty funerals, according to Chernov.

The documentary also is elevated by its perfectly timed editing by Michell Minzer and a very daunting score by Sam Slater. It will remind you of Volker Bertelmann’s work on All Quiet On The Western Front, but doesn’t have that blaring three-note motif some find annoying. There isn’t a moment where the film is stagnant. Someone is talking, something is there on the screen that captures your attention, and the mind cannot stop taking in all of this information that cements the current horrors of war these men have faced. 

“They say that heroes don’t die, but they do,” says one woman in mourning. It is a jaded experience as it never ends approaching the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion. The epilogue at the end even gives a grim update of the action, which brings to question if any of this was worth it, yet Ukraine refuses to lay down their arms and give up their homeland. 2000 Meters To Andriivka is one step closer to freedom – or death – for these men and we feel that danger with its daring camerawork to walk through this valley of death. 

5 stars

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