Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (2015)

This is another excellent documentary from Netflix depicting the Maidan revolution in Kiev as it happened from behind the lines. It is certainly a movie of our times to be able to capture revolution in the moment up close like we usually only see in news reels, but now everyone has cameras and they shoot high quality. That is the only thing they shoot, for the protesters are largely peaceful. And the viewer is one of these protesters right in the thick of it. We feel the power of the people, strongly aided by a sweeping soundtrack. Fittingly, it includes Chopin's Revolutionary Etude.

The film opens with a rapid fire history lesson that is strangely told in present tense English. There are some pretty cool animations to map out where the protests were occurring. I did have a problem with the subtitles. The white subtitles were difficult to read in day scenes.

Though the material is similar to Netflix's The Square about the Egyptian protests, this movie is not as nuanced. This is very much a one-sided argument, and that is ok. We see the citizens of Kiev protesting for freedom. But the issue is much more complex than that. This is perhaps oversimplified a bit. But this does not detract from the viscerally powerful imagery.

I do wonder if the filmmakers filmed these scenes with the intention of making a documentary or simply to capture archival footage of history. And further if the filmmakers were even behind the cameras or if they obtained the footage from other people after the fact.