06/03/2023 - BERLINALE 2023: We learn how the directors made their urgent documentary combining footage from the frontline with material filmed in Western Ukraine

We caught up with Vitaly Mansky and Yevhen Titarenko, the two co-directors of Eastern Front [+see also:
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film profile], which competed in the Berlinale's Encounters section. They tell us how they made this urgent documentary that combines footage shot directly on the frontline with segments filmed in peaceful parts of Western Ukraine.

Cineuropa: How did you two meet and come up with the concept for this film?
Yevhen Titarenko: We met in 2017; producer Natalia Kazan had the idea to send my film War for Peace to Vitaly's ArtDocFest in Moscow. Vitaly tried to show the film, and it was a very tough situation when the first criminal case against him was opened in Russia. In 2022, after I had already shot some parts of the film, Natalia suggested inviting Vitaly to join us.

Vitaly Mansky: We started to discuss it and realised that Yevhen had to be the main character in the film. We also understood that there should be some separation and distancing from his squad mates in order to add a fresh dimension to the situation.

How did you decide on this clear time frame of six months, from the beginning of the full-scale invasion to the Ukrainian Independence Day on 24 August 2022?
VM: As it's a documentary, we had no idea what would happen to the protagonists, to the film, to the war... So Yevhen was filming the war, and we were filming the things that we could access in the peaceful parts of Ukraine. The situation progressed as the film was developing: we had no idea, for example, that Hostomel would be taken back. It just naturally developed so that 24 August became the end; it was a very powerful demonstration of the destroyed Russian military equipment in the centre of Kyiv, and we could not say no to showing this.

How did you edit the film and pick which segments went in? The scene with the cows stuck in the mud is particularly remarkable.
VM: We understood from the very beginning that the war needed a contrasting image, so we decided to have something very "normal" or even fairy tale-ish. In the section by the lake, everyone is sitting down, undressed, and this contrasts with people rushing around in military gear.

There was a lot of footage, and much of it was quite hardcore, so the logic was for it to be connected to the volunteer squad, and that's where the baptism scene comes from. Also, we didn't want to only focus on human suffering, so it made sense to include scenes and facts that the media would not show. One of the people in the shot with the cows says, “It's like Dante's Inferno”, and we wanted to create a larger, more biblical picture.

In the scenes in Western Ukraine, the protagonists discuss their families' perception of the war and propaganda. Why did you feel it was important to include this?
VM: Obviously, we needed to include Western Ukraine and the people living there, as they had questions about where the war was going and why people were fighting. We wanted to answer those questions, but also, we needed to give the protagonists a background. We wanted to make them real people who would matter to the audience and for whom the audience would feel compassion.

How did you decide on the visual approach, in which war footage is almost sepia-toned and the peaceful parts have a natural look?
VM: In the beginning, we wanted to make everything in sepia, but when we went to do the colour grading in the studio [which, surprisingly, was the studio that did the grading for All Quiet on the Western Front [+see also:
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film profile]], we understood that making everything sepia would have destroyed the logic of “real life” and “war life”. And then, we slowly went from full sepia to having the non-combat scenes in colour, to show the normality of it. So we went from full sepia to two visually distinct styles.

The war will continue, and you, Yevhen, will keep filming, while you, Vitaly, probably have more ideas – are you maybe planning to make another film about the war together?
VM: Despite the fact that we spent a lot of time together in the editing room and doing the colour correction, we never really discussed this, but as this story connected us, maybe there will be another film where we will also join forces. So far, nobody has voiced any objections to it.

YT: I just want to add that we would like people from different countries to watch this film and see what's going on, so that they lose all illusions of what the war is and see what’s important.

VM: And, of course, we want this film to quicken the Ukrainian victory and for everyone who is on the frontline to return as heroes.