Juan David Latorre
Last Friday, March 15th, the screening of the film 20 Days in Mariupol, winner of the Oscar 2024 in the Best Documentary Film nomination, took place at the Academia de Cine de Madrid (Calle Zurbano, 3).
The event, organised by the Ukrainian Embassy and UFACE (Ukrainians for the Arts, Culture and Education), will be followed by a meeting with Vasilisa Stepanenko, producer of the documentary film, and Kateryna Shevchenko, director of the cultural association UFACE (Ukrainians for the Arts Culture and Education).
20 Days in Mariupol is the story in images by Ukrainian photographer and journalist Mstyslav Chernov, in which he narrates the atrocities of the war in Ukraine, specifically what happened in the port city of Mariupol between February and March 2022, when it was attacked by Russian troops.
Chernov, also a Pulitzer Prize winner, was trapped in the besieged city and documented the siege from the inside. Pregnant women near death in a maternity hospital, teenagers mortally wounded after a football match, buildings reduced to rubble, desperate citizens trying to take shelter from the shelling and soldiers braving the onslaught.
On receiving the 2024 Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature nomination, its director said: “This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history and I am honoured,” but I will probably be the first director on this stage to say that I wish I had never made this film. I wish I could exchange this because Russia would never have attacked Ukraine, would never have occupied our cities… but I can’t change history. You can’t change the past.
20 días en Mariúpol can be seen next Thursday 21 March at the Cine Embajadores Río (Calle Ercilla, 53) at 21.30 in original version.
