“I Felt Like I Was There” A reflection on Mstyslav Chernov’s film
I saw 2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA in San Rafael. And after it ended, I just sat there. Didn’t really want to talk. Didn’t really want to move.
Someone asked me what I felt. And the only thing I could say was — I felt like I was there.
I felt like I had just been inside it. In that trench. With those guys. Hearing what they hear, seeing what they see. Not from a distance. Right there.
This film doesn’t use tricks. It doesn’t pull you in with music or cuts. It just shows things the way they are.
There’s one part that stuck with me when Mstyslav talked about the land.
He said he used to play there as a child. That his grandmother told him stories about his great-grandfather fighting in those same woods during the Second World War. And now, he’s back — walking through that same forest, except now it’s burned, mined, destroyed.
And it’s not abstract anymore. It’s not “over there.” It’s something real. Something that can happen to anyone.
Zhan_Petrov
“I Felt Like I Was There”
A reflection on Mstyslav Chernov’s film
I saw 2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA in San Rafael. And after it ended, I just sat there. Didn’t really want to talk. Didn’t really want to move.
Someone asked me what I felt. And the only thing I could say was — I felt like I was there.
I felt like I had just been inside it. In that trench. With those guys. Hearing what they hear, seeing what they see. Not from a distance. Right there.
This film doesn’t use tricks. It doesn’t pull you in with music or cuts. It just shows things the way they are.
There’s one part that stuck with me when Mstyslav talked about the land.
He said he used to play there as a child. That his grandmother told him stories about his great-grandfather fighting in those same woods during the Second World War. And now, he’s back — walking through that same forest, except now it’s burned, mined, destroyed.
And it’s not abstract anymore. It’s not “over there.” It’s something real. Something that can happen to anyone.
That’s what I took from it.
4 months ago | [YT] | 0