Movie Review: Winter On Fire

Winter on Fire is an amateur-filmed documentary that focuses on the events in Kiev, Ukraine in 2013-14. Both gruesome and extremely personal, the documentary focuses on the 93 days during which a peaceful protest for human rights turned into chaotic sequence of events. Directed by Evgeny Afineevsky, Winter on Fire became well known on Netflix and around the globe. This encouraged people to watch it and understand the events that occurred.

The events in the film occurred in Ukraine and eventually led to the involvement of the Russian Federation as well. The unrest began in November 2013, as people started protesting for Ukraine to become part of the European Union. Eventually, at the beginning of 2014, the protests began to focus more on the Ukrainian city of Crimea. Russia wanted this city due to its location. As it was a large water source, and on the Mediterranean sea, it was beneficial for their country. It is debated to this day whether or not Crimea is still part of Ukraine or has become Russian territory.

The majority of the movie was filmed during the actual time of the protests. Evgeny Afineevsky was one of the protesters who was fighting on Maidan (a public square in Kiev, Ukraine, where many protests took place). During the time of the protests he collected brief clips, and compiled them to create the documentary. The majority of the documentary depicts the fights between the government and the people of Ukraine. Along with this footage, both politicians and citizens of Kiev were interviewed, sharing their opinions of the events. As the documentary itself is dealing with a very complex and gruesome topic, it is not advised that children watch it.

Although Winter on Fire is a documentary, and many high school students prefer Hollywood movies, I highly recommend it. It focuses on concepts such as war and violence that are relevant to people living anywhere, not just those with a personal connection to Ukraine. People interested in politics, specifically the relationships between government officials and civilians, will most likely enjoy this documentary. As international minded students, it is important that we understand events that happen both in the past and present in different countries. Personally, as a European who lived through these events, I found it to be a highly fascinating documentary that I was able to relate with.