John and I went up to The Barbican yesterday to watch Twenty Days In Mariupol. To be honest I hadn’t heard of it, but John seemed keen to watch it, and thought that I would get something out of it. Having seen it now, I really think it was the toughest viewing experience I have had in a long, long time: it’s a nonfiction film about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It mostly uses raw, often very graphic footage to reveal the appalling things russia is doing there, juxtaposed with the cut down, edited images we see on news bulletins. We as viewers thus get a sense of the context of what we see most of the time, as well as the sheer brutality of what Russia is doing in Ukraine.

In fact at points it was so horrific that I seriously considered asking to leave the screening. I’m glad I didn’t act on that urge though: films like Twenty Days in Mariupol need to be watched, just as they need to be made. The world must see what Russia, under Vladimir Putin, is doing in Ukraine, as well as the amount of audacious bull it tries to spin in the media to try to justify it’s essentially criminal actions. The Russians would have us believe that it had no choice and invading Ukraine was an act of self defence; the film John and I saw yesterday was testimony to precisely the opposite. Thus, as horrific as it was, I would call Twenty Days In Mariupol essential viewing for anyone who wants to be aware of what is currently going on in the world. Above all, you leave the screening aghast that things like the horrors you just saw can still be allowed to happen.