Mstyslav Chernov gives people under fire the time that news reports rarely allow them. We strongly recommend his account of Mariupol, with a firm warning about the images of suffering and a small reservation about the sombre narration.
Fi1m perspective
In 20 Days in Mariupol (2023), residents ask the journalists to record what is happening to them. Those requests matter when the camera’s presence can otherwise feel intrusive. Chernov keeps filming people whose immediate task is to survive, and gives their testimony more time than a short news report allows. We strongly recommend the film because it makes us attend to those people long enough to hear them, even when we would rather look away.
His move from photography and video journalism to feature documentaries has given him room to stay with people beyond the demands of a short report. Footage gathered during nearly three weeks in the besieged city became his first feature documentary. His next film, 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025), follows Ukrainian soldiers advancing through a forest corridor during the 2023 counteroffensive. The move from civilians to soldiers changes whose experience he records, while retaining his practice of working alongside the people he films.
We were horrified by the injured children and their parents’ distress in 20 Days in Mariupol. Chernov does not let the wounds occupy all our attention; he stays with the parents, too. The length of these passages makes it difficult to treat what we see as another piece of news and move on. This is where his judgement as a director matters most: he keeps the human consequences of the bombardment before us without making his own courage the subject.
His narration in 20 Days in Mariupol helps us understand whose account we are hearing. The sombre delivery sometimes presses an emotion the footage has already made unavoidable. Composer Jordan Dykstra’s music supplies another prompt to feel the gravity of the images, and we rarely need it. These are limited objections, but the plainest passages make us wish Chernov trusted the recorded voices a little more. Start with 20 Days in Mariupol, but take the warning about images of injured children seriously.
Biography
Mstyslav Chernov is a Ukrainian filmmaker, war correspondent and photojournalist. Born on 3 July 1985 in Kharkiv, he began his career as a photographer in 2005 and has worked as a journalist for the Associated Press since covering conflicts including the War in Donbas.
Chernov directed, wrote and produced the documentary 20 Days in Mariupol (2023), in which he also appears as narrator and interviewer. The film, based on footage shot during the siege of the city, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the BAFTA for Best Documentary. He is also known for directing 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025). His work on the siege earned a shared Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2023.
