Another temporary obstacle in the transition from Substack back to WordPress has been my health with a couple of original posts stymied due to a brief (but frankly terrifying) couple of nights in hospital1. I’m recovering now but I didn’t get to see any new releases this weekend – and missed a couple of lucrative radio shifts too. This week might see a bit more recycling here than I was planning.
As the world’s attention turns itself to the Middle East2, I can’t help but wondering what will become of Ukraine. Much of the analysis says that as long as they continue to get support from the West, the outlook is attritional but hopeful, but they are currently relying on a change of heart from Elon Musk’s Starlink to give them an advantage on the ground.
To see what that means in practice, you should watch 2000 Meters from Andriivka, the most memorable of the five films I previewed from the 2025 New Zealand International Film Festival:
20 Days in Mariupol was a heartbreaking documentary about the relentless Russian assault on the Ukrainian industrial city and the toll taken on the civilian population. Thanks to journalists who refused to evacuate when self-preservation instincts should have been screaming at them to get the heck out, we have a document of the atrocities committed thanks to this profoundly stupid and unnecessary war.
Now, more Associated Press reporters have put themselves in harm’s way for a film about the frontline in that conflict, 2000 Meters to Andriivka. A tiny sliver of forest between two minefields is the path for Assault Battalion 3, on a mission to liberate a tactically important village, potentially severing the Russian supply lines to Bakhmut. At least that was the theory.
Thanks to the embedded reporters and GoPro helmet cams on the soldiers, we get as close to the horror of battle as I ever want to get. I once hear someone describe the terrible hand-to-hand fighting in the Falklands conflict – an ugly reality kept from the folks back home – as like “a daft brawl in a bar”. The Ukraine conflict has more technology than that – real-time drone footage allowing battlefield commanders to steer their squads from foxhole to foxhole – but it’s still fierce and terrifying, inch-by-inch.
I read something the other day pointing out that Putin has been in charge of Russia for so long that anyone under 25 hasn’t known any other régime. The indoctrination on the Russian side is complete and as long as they can continue to throw willing bodies at the frontline no one in Ukraine – or the rest of Europe for that matter – can be safe.
This film is desperately sad and can’t avoid ending with a sense of hopelessness at the waste of it all.
Also in that festival preview: Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, charming and wistful The Ballad of Wallis Island, local indie Workmates and the disappointing music doco Pavements.
Where to watch 2000 Meters from Andriivka
Aotearoa & Australia: Streaming on DocPlay
Canada & USA: Streaming on PBS Documentaries3
UK & Ireland: Streaming on NowTV
India: Not currently available
UK:
- As much of the gory details as I am prepared to share here at Bluesky. ↩︎
- Quick reminder that all of Israel’s military adventures have the sole purpose of keeping Netanyahu out of a criminal court for blatant corruption. People are dying on both sides for the egos of two men. ↩︎
- PBS Documentaries is a Prime Video channel so you have to have that subscription first. ↩︎
