Ukrainian Oscar winner Mstyslav Chernov: ‘I wish I’d never made this film’

Some Oscar winners are called brave for tackling an edgy topic, playing against type or making bold lighting or soundtrack choices, but the Ukrainians behind 20 Days in Mariupol risked their lives for the footage that earned them an Academy Award on Sunday night.

The journalist and director Mstyslav Chernov, the photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and the field producer Vasilisa Stepanenko stayed behind in Mariupol as tens of thousands of its residents and all other reporters from major news outlets fled the port city on the Azov Sea in the weeks after Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine, two years ago.

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The images and interviews they gathered for the Associated Press, beamed out via a faint phone signal as Moscow’s troops blasted their way into Mariupol, captured the horror of the city’s plight, showing the world how Russian bombs flattened a maternity home and hit children who died in their parents’ arms in a hospital under fire. Ukrainian soldiers helped the team escape Mariupol before it fell – running a terrifying gauntlet through the city to allow them to join locals fleeing via an evacuation corridor – because they knew that if the journalists were caught, Russia would force them to declare publicly that all their reports had been faked.

“This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history, and I’m honoured,” Chernov said when accepting the prize for best documentary. “Probably I will be the first director on this stage to say I wish I’d never made this film. I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine.”

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Their victory was warmly welcomed in Ukraine, which still endures nightly missile and drone strikes, is under intense attack from Russian ground forces in the east and now faces doubts about whether western powers will keep sending vital military aid. “This award is important for our entire country. The horrors of Mariupol must never be forgotten. The entire world must see and remember what the inhumane Russian invasion brought to our people,” said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“Cities and villages were destroyed, homes were burned and entire families were killed by Russian shells and buried in their own backyards ... This documentary serves as a reminder of why international assistance – without delays or interruptions – is so critical to Ukraine,” he added. “The Russian evil does not pause and does not seek peace ... I am grateful to everyone in the world who understands this and continues to support Ukraine. I thank everyone who tells the truth about Russia’s war crimes.”

Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, posted screenshots of angry responses in Russian media to the film’s success. “The Oscar effect. The Russians are incensed, as if we’d we blown up [Lenin’s] mausoleum or a Kremlin tower in the middle of Moscow,” he said. “It’s an eloquent illustration of the importance of the victory of 20 Days in Mariupol.”

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Dmitry Medvedev, a former president of Russia and now deputy chairman of its security council, said on social media that “the Oscars are being handed out” but did not mention the Mariupol film while proposing how Russian cinema should respond. “It has become much better quality than it was 10-15 years ago. A lot has changed: there are good scripts, decent dialogue, direction, acting. I like it,” he said, even though most of Russia’s best directors and actors have now left the country.

“We must go forward and make films about war. I understand there is a fear of misrepresenting sacred themes. You can’t make films about war in a primitive, vulgar, glamorous way,” he added. “But we must make films! It is time. Make films about our heroes, exalting their exploits. Make documentaries and feature films. Make films so that people know and remember. It is time. The moment has come.”

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The in-memoriam section of the Oscar ceremony began with a clip from last year’s winning documentary, Navalny, about the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his survival of a near-fatal poisoning by the Kremlin’s security services in 2020. He died last month in an Arctic prison after being jailed upon his return to Russia. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, who has vowed to continue his fight for democracy in Russia, wrote on social media: “Congratulations to Mstyslav Chernov and the entire team of 20 Days in Mariupol for their truly deserving and important Oscar victory.”

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