20 Days in Mariupol

This is a brilliant, moving, audacious documentary from an extremely talented videographer and team, and deserves at least an Emmy and, even more preferably, an Oscar, but awards are not enough for this exceptional work.

This is a rare, you-are-there experience, in which you are immersed in the Russian takeover of a city in the Ukraine, and where you feel every emotion that these poor beseighed people feel.

The documentary starts on the week of March in which the Russian oligarch Putin (not the President, which would mean that he was elected) announces to the people of Ukraine that he is about to invade the country, and within moments, actually does launch a full-scale invasion, and we watch it happen almost moment by moment. Bombs fall on Soviet-style apartment complexes at a rate of hundreds a day, and the entire landscape soon begins to resemble the aftermath of Hiroshima.

But what is most dynamic is the actual impact on the people themselves, many of whom do not know who is bombing them. Astounding. Watching children, pregnant moms, and hospital workers taking the worst beating of all is utterly depressing, but, like all medicine, needs to be taken and swallowed whole.

Overall, this documentary is one of the most heart-wrenching, devastating, tear-jerking experiences ever. You owe it to yourself to see this to get the full effect, since words can never describe how much of an impact it will have on you.

It is a shame that it would only be available on PBS, since that will alienate at least 95% of the population that needs to watch it, but if there is even a smidgen of justice left in the world, the few who see it will tell everyone they know, and hopefully, something will come from it.

Thanks to the brave filmmakers who told this shocking story.