ABOUT THE FILM

Crafted from stark footage and exclusive interviews with people displaced by the enduring conflict, FREEDOM ON FIRE: UKRAINE’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM reveals how the spirit of unity strengthens morale even amid the country’s darkest hours. 

ABOUT

When Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, its citizens instinctively renewed the survival strategies that sustained them eight years prior during the Maidan Uprising. This companion piece to director Evgeny Afineevsky’s Academy Award Nominated documentary Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom explores why a jubilant day on Kyiv’s Maidan square instigated warfare that has lasted the better part of a decade. Broadening his focus from a single city, Afineevsky and his veteran Winter on Fire crew turn their lenses on multiple countries, trailing both the Ukrainians trying to escape and those who have vowed to stay behind. 

A sweeping look at a humanitarian crisis, the documentary amplifies the views of children, mothers, soldiers, doctors, artists, volunteers, clergymen, and journalists who are transformed while witnessing ceaseless destruction and bloodshed. Featuring narration from Oscar-winning Dame Helen Mirren, FREEDOM ON FIRE is a saga of resilience that challenges the international community to oppose tyranny together.

THE FILM WILL BE AVAILABLE ON DEMAND DECEMBER 12TH!

MEET THE FILMMAKER

EVGENY AFINEEVSKY, Director, Producer & Cinematographer

Documentarian Evgeny Afineevsky was born in the Russian city of Kazan when it was part of the former U.S.S.R. Since childhood, he has dreamed of a world with less violence and more acceptance. 

While making WINTER ON FIRE: UKRAINE’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM (2015), he realized that he could imbue his art with activism. That film helped galvanize people in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Hong Kong and Lebanon to demonstrate against oppressive dictatorships. His next work, Cries from Syria (2017), opened hearts and minds — audience members in various countries inundated Afineevsky with questions about how they could aid innocents who have long been trapped in the Syrian Civil War. After earning Pope Francis’ trust for Francesco (2020), he joined the pontiff on a globe-trotting tour to alleviate division through love and kindness. A continuation of WINTER ON FIRE called FREEDOM ON FIRE: UKRAINE’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM will premiere as an Official Selection at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. Tracing his four-title arc from WINTER ON FIRE to FREEDOM ON FIRE, shared themes emerge such as humanity’s capacity for good and evil, mortality and heroism. 

Afineevsky has also debuted documentaries at the Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, Rome International Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival. His oeuvre has received nominations for an Oscar, a PGA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and four News & Documentary Emmy Awards. Additional accolades include a People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary from the Toronto International Film Festival, a Critics’ Choice Documentary Award for Best Director, an Overseas Press Club Award, a Television Academy Honors award, an IDA Documentary Award, two Kineo Awards, a Humanitas Prize, Catholics in Media Associates Social Justice Award, and a Cinema for Peace award.

FEATURED FILM SUBJECTS

  • Nataliia Nagorna

    Ukrainian war journalist for the television channel 1+1 who takes solace in the expectations of her job, even amid a humanitarian emergency. “True courage is when you are afraid but still act,” she says.

  • Anna Zaitseva

    Mother of an infant who hides for more than two months underneath the Azovstal iron and steel plant, the Mariupol facility where her husband works. She is forced to act as a single parent — her husband’s whereabouts are a secret while he serves in the Azov Regiment and after he becomes a prisoner of war. Once Azovstal is hit with an anti-bunker bomb, Anna and her son, Sviatoslav, are taken to a Russian-run filtration camp; she is first interrogated, then fêted in pro-Russian propaganda pieces. Finally, she and Sviatoslav are released to the Red Cross and the United Nations.

  • Tetiana Vlasenko and Kateryna Vlasenko

    Respective mother and 16-year-old daughter who are hospitalized after being shot in their car by members of the Russian Armed Forces. Kateryna sustains serious injuries, but she and her eight-year-old brother, Igor, likely saved each other’s lives: she shielded him from bullets, and he howled at a soldier who eventually led them to safety.

  • Fr. Andriy Zelinskyy, SJ

    Chief military chaplain for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, who analyzes why Russia has been trying to incite discord within Ukraine since he and his fellow Maidan protesters declared victory. Zelinskyy remembers peaceful evenings spent watching the stars glimmer through the shrapnel-studded walls and roof of an airplane hangar.

  • Dmytro “Orest” Kozatskyi

    Member of the Azov Battalion who filmed videos that revealed the true story of the civilians living under the bombings of the Azovstal plant, shocking the world.

  • Evgeniy Maloletka

    Ukrainian war photographer, journalist and filmmaker who witnesses calamity when the Russian Air Force bombs a Mariupol, Ukraine maternity hospital on March 9, 2022.

  • Stanislav Stovban

    Member of the Ukrainian military whose battalion was bombed at the Donetsk Airport in 2014. Stovban was taken into Russian captivity, where one of his legs was amputated. Following a prisoner exchange, his other leg was saved by a Ukrainian doctor, and Stovban immediately rejoined the fight.