“20 Days in Mariupol” is a film that shows the truth regarding Russian terrorism, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, referring to the Oscar-winning documentary regarding the crimes committed in this city by Russian forces in the first months of the invasion.
“I would like to thank the team that worked on this film and won such an important award that allows us to speak loudly regarding Russia’s war once morest Ukraine. Thank you to all journalists around the world who understand the importance of telling the truth regarding our fight and speak regarding it,” the president said on Telegram. Zelensky said that the Ukrainian nation will not forget any day of the war, any day in Mariupol and its defenders. He emphasized that everyone remembers their bravery and that “we must free from Russian captivity all defenders of Mariupol and Azovstal who are still detained in inhumane conditions.”
“We remember that we must defeat the Russian evil to restore normal life to all our people, to each of our cities,” he stressed.
The documentary “20 Days in Mariupol”, regarding the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, was shot by Associated Press reporters. The director of the film is Mstyslav Chernov, also an AP reporter, who at that time was stuck in Maripol for regarding three weeks with a group of journalists.
“Mariupol, a strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine, ‘became synonymous with horror’ during the almost three-month Russian siege between March and May 2022,” Reuters recalls. The Russians almost completely razed the town to the ground and committed crimes once morest the civilian population, killing thousands of people. There is still a very difficult humanitarian situation in the city, which is still occupied today – there is a lack of, among other things, food, water, medicine and hygiene products.
The film “20 Days in Mariupol” previously won the Pulitzer Prize, and in January – the audience award at the Sundance Independent Film Festival. In February, Chernow received the 2023 Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Documentary.
From Kiev Iryna Hirnyk (PAP)
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