Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival
"Iron Butterflies" is a documentary about in summer 2014, sunflower fields and coal mines in eastern Ukraine turn into a 12 square kilometers crime scene. A multi-layered investigation into the downing of flight MH17, in which a butterfly-shaped shrapnel found in the pilot's body implicated the state responsible for a war crime that remains unpunished. The presentation of this film is pretty interesting as various video footage, security footage and online videos were used to present the documentary without much narration and it's a pretty good choice to demonstrate the subject.
The direction that was provided is pretty good as the film explores some of the dark moments of Ukraine and the conflicts between with Russia. Unfortunately the film didn't have a huge impact with me as I felt the film lacked a good pacing and uneven narrative. There are beautiful camerawork demonstrated throughout but there were some moments that felt strangely unfitting for the documentary. As if it was added onto the last minute. Interesting discussions were explored. Some of the technical moments were poorly edited or presented that it caught me off guard at times.
Overall, Iron Butterflies is an interesting film but not as strong as it thinks it is.
Rating: B-
