Mstislav Chernov's film at the Sundance Film Festival: an insightful experience.

The events on the ground were monitored by journalist Ulyana Boychuk, who will share the details.

World Premiere of "2000 Meters to Andreevka"

Close your eyes and imagine silence filled with thoughts. Silence that everyone is afraid to break. Silence that speaks louder than any words. This is how one can describe the feelings experienced after watching "2000 Meters to Andreevka." The film, directed by the Oscar-winning Ukrainian filmmaker Myroslav Chernov, has become one of the most anticipated premieres at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival in the USA.

The world premiere of "2000 Meters to Andreevka" took place on the festival's opening day and was announced as one of the festival's key films. The team behind the film, led by director Myroslav Chernov, was present at the premiere. The audience applauded standing three times after the screening.

The film depicts how Ukrainian defenders conducted a counter-offensive in 2023 and liberated the village of Andreevka near Bakhmut. Director Chernov, along with his colleague Alexander Babenko, went to the front lines with the soldiers to capture what was truly happening there.

"When we met Fedya, it was already the height of the counter-offensive, and things were not going well.
At that moment, Fedya and his team showed us the moment of their friend's death — Gagarin. They were mourning his loss. And I thought, this was the first time they actually SAW IT themselves. The moment of death was recorded on their (military) cameras, but they had never allowed themselves to watch those frames together. They were shocked and tense at the same time. We talked to them and watched them," Chernov shares with the audience after the premiere about a moment that was crucial both in the film and in its creation.

"Then we looked at the map, and I saw that forest as a small strip of land on the map. I thought, ‘Oh my God, these two kilometers, one mile — this is the story of an entire, ENTIRE front line that spans thousands of kilometers.’ If we could tell THAT story, because ours is just a tiny part — we could tell so much more. So we tried our best," Myroslav tells the audience.

The scene of the soldier's death, known by the call sign Gagarin, is the most powerful in the film and shifts the narrative in a different direction.

At the beginning of the film, the author quotes a soldier who says that war is like a separate planet where you land, and everything and everyone is trying to destroy you. But it’s not a planet, the director adds; it’s a country in the center of Europe where war is ongoing.

And throughout the film, you feel like you're in a video game, where it seems that this cannot be real: ruins, destroyed houses, and abandoned bodies, a forest that seems never-ending, and a battle that lasts an eternity.

"Shooting with a chest camera added a sense of presence. I felt very close to this war," says one of the viewers after the public screening.

"I still can't understand how they went there to shoot a film. It's fearless and, I would say, heroic. How were they not afraid?" asks another viewer while chatting with a friend.

The film, besides the directorial work, also includes footage from soldiers' chest cameras, and there are scenes where soldiers film themselves. An important part of the filming process was to spend enough time with the military, communicate with them, and establish a connection. The directors strive to be unobtrusive.

"We spend much more time than you see in the film. The soldiers seem to give official responses, reciting memorized answers, but to reach human aspects takes time, and the camera needs to be smaller; the operator's work should be noticeable yet discreet, non-aggressive. It’s a balance, but it’s something I learned over many years, and my colleague Alex did too. It’s what years of journalism taught us," says Myroslav.

"This is a complex and heavy film, but it needs to be watched. I hope as many people as possible will see it," says one of the viewers to me.

Every director at the Sundance festival dreams of their film reaching as many viewers as possible.

"The fact that we received this award means that the film will find its audience, and I hope that this audience will be larger than that of '20 Days in Mariupol'," Myroslav Chernov says after the awards ceremony in a comment to Novini.LIVE.

Award at the Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival in the USA is one of the most prestigious independent film festivals in the world; it serves as a platform for debuts, which, by the way, happened for Myroslav Chernov two years ago with the film "20 Days in Mariupol," which later received the most prestigious award from the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — the Oscar. This year, at Sundance, the film "2000 Meters to Andreevka" received the award for Best Directing in the World Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival in the USA.

"We did not expect, we did not hope for this award. We know that the world's attention is currently not solely focused on Ukraine. Ukrainian films find it much harder to attract this attention, much harder to communicate with the world, but I feel that this year, which is just beginning, will be the year when everyone will talk about Ukraine, everyone will want to know what Ukrainians feel, what they think about the land they are defending, because we will be asked to give it up," adds Myroslav Chernov in an exclusive comment after the awards ceremony.

"For me, it is extremely important that the film draws attention to the fact that this is not just about kilometers or miles; not just about the names of settlements that have been destroyed by Russia; not just about the names of people who have lost their lives; but about real heroes, about the towns and villages that are home to