20 Days in Mariupol: The Firsthand Horrors of a City Under Siege

By: Emma Thorp

20 Days in Mariupol

Figure 1. 20 Days in Mariupol, A woman finds her home destroyed. 14 Jul. 2023.

 

On July 14, 2023, 20 Days in Mariupol hit theatres and forever changed its viewers' perception of war, including my own.  

Mstyslav Chernov, the filmmaker, writer, and director, finds himself and his team of journalists in Mariupol, Ukraine on the first day that signs of Russian invasion appear in the city.  He proceeds to take audience members day by day through all 20 days of their stay in Mariupol before they have no choice but to evacuate the area in order to protect all the film they have captured.  Each day is filled with scenes that are anything but easy to watch.  Chernov acknowledges this himself through comments like this one on Day 7:

“This is painful to watch.  But it must be painful to watch.”

Citizens are constantly being injured by the Russian military dropping bombshells on Mariupol as they live their day-to-day lives.  A teenage boy's legs get blown off while playing soccer with his friends outside.  A woman suffers severe burns from standing on her balcony when the apartment across the street from hers gets shelled. Hospitals are being blown up.  A man walks for four hours in the street just to make it to a safer area, one where his house won’t be bombed.  Doctors are frantically trying to help citizens with the little drugs and supplies they have left.  Water, food, electricity, and internet all dwindle day by day.  By Day 11, citizens are told it’s safer to stay put despite the fact that each day, more and more people become injured and die.  Their only choice is to crowd bomb shelters and basements and pray that the war will end soon, when it is only just beginning.

Figure 2. 20 Days in Mariupol, A crowded surgery room where doctors try to save several dying citizens. 14 Jul. 2023. 

Unlike past documentaries we have covered in our class, like Occupation: Dreamland, this documentary really feels like raw, unmediated footage.  Whereas Occupation: Dreamland appears to set up shots from different angles, selling a certain image of soldiers, Chernov includes scenes no matter how gruesome, emotional, or horrifying.  Of course, we hear Chernov behind the camera asking civilians questions, but it really feels like he includes every part of Mariupol’s story with the sole desire of exposing it to the world.  For instance, he includes a woman whom he meets on Day 1, who cries to him about feeling afraid.  With the little information he has, he gives the advice to stay put, but her house gets bombed.  She survives the bombing but confronts Chernov with anger, and he includes it in the film.  Although this puts Chernov in somewhat of a bad light, it’s clear he wants to show as many civilian perspectives as possible. 

It's evident that this documentary was put together to build resistance toward war culture.  Chernov includes many clips of civilians who feel a range of emotions regarding what is happening around them: anger, confusion, fear, and sadness.  In almost every clip, there is a civilian who is injured and/or dying.  It forces the audience to ask the question: Why?  Why is it necessary for Russians to kill civilians to this magnitude?  To bomb maternity hospitals?  To kill innocent children?  The logistics make no sense.  The most frustrating part is the documentary includes clips of Russian government officials who are confronted with questions like these.  They do not own up to their actions.  They do not apologize.  Instead, they tweet that the victims in Ukraine, the women with blood all over their heads and dead babies in their arms, are paid actors.  Watching the film, this infuriated me.  After watching the first hour, being exposed to all the bombings and frantic doctors trying to save patients, the fact that Russian officials not only claimed it to be fake but probably made millions of people believe the same is devastating.

Figure 3. 20 Days in Mariupol, A woman who recently escaped a maternity hospital that was bombed. 14 Jul. 2023.

Although this was honestly one of the most heartbreaking pieces of media I have ever consumed, it is something that will stay with me forever.  This documentary made me more aware than any mediated news story or social media post ever could.  Watching it really did feel like a shock to my system, a reality check of what parts of our world look like every day for innocent people.  This film also made me much more aware of how easily officials can manipulate news viewers.  In the future, I want to challenge my perspective more often and do my research to make sure I don’t fall for extremely harmful misinformation.

Works Cited

    20 Days in Mariupol. Directed by Mstyslav Chernov. PBS Distribution, 2023. Amazon.