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Filmmaker-Turned-Soldier Captures Ukraine's Harrowing War Firsthand
10 Oct
Summary
- Artem Ryzhykov witnessed the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Kyiv, getting shot while filming
- When the 2022 Russian invasion began, Ryzhykov became a "filmmaker soldier", documenting the war
- Ryzhykov's wife Ira observes the war's "horror and romance" as Russian troops amass
In 2014, Artem Ryzhykov witnessed the Maidan Revolution in Kyiv, Ukraine, as citizens took to the streets to overthrow the Russian-backed president. Ryzhykov himself was shot while filming the protests, but the revolution succeeded in ousting the president. However, Russia responded by invading Crimea.
When the current war began in February 2022, with Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Ryzhykov made a decision: he would fight and he would film. Becoming a "filmmaker soldier", Ryzhykov has been documenting the war from the trenches, carving out an existential historical record of the conflict.
Ryzhykov's wife, Ira, observes the war's "horror and romance" as Russian troops amass just weeks before the invasion. The film follows Ryzhykov's journey, from his early days in the Territorial Defense to his role as a drone pilot, as he navigates the chaos and devastation of the war. Through Ryzhykov's lens, we see the ordinary life of Ukrainians being subsumed by the totality of the conflict, a nation torn out of the very life it's fighting for.
