On 18 February, the film “20 Days in Mariupol” directed by Mstislav Chernov won the Best Documentary category at the BAFTA Awards, according to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ official website.
Russia destroyed and overran Mariupol, a port city on the Azov Sea coast in Donetsk Oblast, home to nearly 500,000 people, early in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Most Mariupolites did not have a chance to evacuate, and the exact number of civilian casualties, estimated in the tens of thousands, remains unknown to this day.
The Ukrainian documentary tells the story of the first weeks of fighting in Mariupol. It includes footage of Russian shelling and the bombing of a maternity hospital.
The film was created by director and photographer Mstyslav Chernov, photographer Yevhen Malolietka, and producer and journalist Vasylisa Stepanenko.