Rating: TV-PG | Runtime: 97 minutes
Release Date: July 14th, 2023 (USA) / August 31st, 2023 (Ukraine
Studio: Arthouse Traffic / PBS Distribution
Director(s): Mstyslav Chernov
Writer(s): Mstyslav Chernov

It’s painful to watch. But it must be painful to watch.

AP journalists Mstyslav Chernov (who directs, writes, and narrates) and Evgeniy Maloletka headed into Mariupol at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, knowing the port city would be a key piece in the impending war. For the first twenty days of bombing, they walked the streets interviewing citizens, hid in basements, and visited overwhelmed hospitals all while searching for good enough internet to send their footage to their editors. And just hours before their final shelter was taken by Russian soldiers specifically looking for them as a means to stop their reporting, Chernov and Maloletka escaped.

That’s not a spoiler. This film doesn’t exist if they get captured. As it was, Russians still falsely debunked their videos as being an elaborately staged misinformation campaign enlisting actors to pose as victims. That’s the state of today’s world thanks to shrewd officials using social media tools to manipulate and propagandize lies just as easily as others utilize those tools to share the truth. One could say it’s easier to do the former since you don’t need to back anything up with evidence. At one point some Ukrainian civilians even scream into the cameras that their own military is the cause of their suffering.

20 Days in Mariupol documents it all. The fear, death, and despair. The tears of doctors telling Chernov to film everything so the world can know. The tears of men dragging dead bodies into mass grave trenches they’ve dug to make room in hospitals under siege. The tears we assume are shed by Chernov himself whenever he puts down his camera and helmet to stand off-camera and process what he’s just witnessed. He and Maloletka are nothing short of heroes for daring to remain when everyone else had left. Heroes that the doctors and military did everything they could to protect so that these atrocities wouldn’t be buried.

Yes, it’s another harrowing call for audiences to bear witness. One that earns its labels of “important” and “crucial” simply by existing. That it’s also a well-edited and structured story is merely an afterthought—albeit a major factor that ensures it’s seen and appreciated where others might not be. Because you’ve seen this footage before. Maybe not this actual footage or even footage from this particular war, but footage of the horrors mankind delivers upon itself. To have it told by those who documented it and risked their lives to protect it provides an additional layer that sets it apart. Hopefully just enough to spark the seeds of change.

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Ukrainian emergency employees and police officers evacuate injured pregnant woman Iryna Kalinina, 32, from a maternity hospital that was damaged by a Russian airstrike in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)