“I got married to a film-maker and ended up with a commander of an assault group,” laughs Veronika Velch, wife of Ukrainian director turned frontline fighter Oleh Sentsov. The couple are at IDFA festival in Amsterdam this week to screen Sentsov’s extraordinary single-shot “found footage” documentary Real, a 90-minute slice of raw battlefield action that he accidentally filmed during Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive against the Russian invasion in August 2023. Velch officially works as head of Amnesty International in Ukraine, and more informally as her husband’s translator. They live in Kyiv with a blended family, a dog and a cat.
Even before he signed up for military service, immediately after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the Crimea-born Sentsov had a dramatic back story as a political prisoner and award-winning human rights hero. In 2014, after Putin illegally annexed Crimea, the director was arrested by FSB agents and tried by occupying forces on trumped-up terrorism charges. He was sentenced to 20 years in an Arctic penal colony, a decision denounced by Amnesty and the global film community, from Ken Loach and Pedro Almodovar to Russian directors Andrey Zvyagintsev and Alexander Sokurov. Following a five-month hunger strike in 2018, he was released under a prisoner exchange in September 2019. For the last six months, on breaks between frontline battle duty, he has been promoting Real on the film festival circuit.
Since it premiered at Karlovy Vary in June, Real has screened in Warsaw, Stockholm, IDFA and other film festivals. How is it being received?
“A good success, I would say. We have to take into consideration the very low expectations I had here. This was footage accidentally captured on my GoPro camera that I first wanted to delete. And yet this it has been so well-received, and various critics write numerous very positive reviews. This is the footage that I even did not want to make a movie by itself, but it became a movie somehow.”
“We also had a very special screening back in Kyiv during the Kyiv Festival of Critics. We were able to invite the soldiers who participated in that battle, and their fellow soldiers. Every screening is very important to me, and of course, it’s very interesting how western audiences are touched and moved by this movie. This was not expected. But besides that, the other main target audience that was very important to me is the soldiers participating in the battles, who are in the front line, how they would perceive the movie. They really like it. They said, when they watch it, it basically takes them back to that moment.”
Real is a snapshot of a tragic day in the 2023 counteroffensive against Russia, with high casualties and chaotic communication. You have also been critical of Ukrainian battlefield tactics in recent months. Have Ukraine’s military command responded to the film?
“I did not ask for permission to make this film because it would probably not be possible. Ukraine is a very bureaucratic country, so it might go on and on for a long time. I really doubt I would ever get it. So I did it based on my own conscience my own risk, but still considering all the levels of responsibility and possible consequences that could be there. I also knew that I’m not disclosing any military secrets, zero. Also all the people who’ve been participating in that battle give me permission to do this.”
Do you consider Real to be anti-war film?
“Any movie about about war, in origin, is an anti-war movie. Because anyone who ever been at the war, who lost friends in war, who has been in active battles, who observed all the suffering in the war, would do anything possible to make sure that this war would not happen, So considering that fact, I would say any movie about the war could be called an anti-war movie. But this movie was not made to show people all the horrifying facts of the war. It was more just to show ordinary people what it means to be in the war, what the soldiers could observe, how they behave, the certain levels of communication happening there. It’s not about making everyone feel terrified, it is just about the real stuff that is happening there. I’m definitely not one of those pacifist directors who have been denying the war, calling to stop the war, making these big slogans and everything. I’m one of those who, when the war began, took the weapon in my own hands and started to defend my country, because this is the war for our survival.
Real was shot 18 months ago, and obviously the war has changed significantly since then, even in the five months since it premiered. Donald Trump has also been re-elected as US president, claiming he can end the conflict in 24 hours. How do you feel today about Ukraine’s prospects?
“Of course, after all this time, there are certain difficulties, and those difficulties are not a big secret. There are some internal problems inside the country. There is a problem with the Ukrainian support because it’s very normal that after to three years of active battles, any support would be fading. And of course, the elections in the United States could create a complete reset. That is is something that is going to impact the situation profoundly.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently predicted that Donald Trump’s administration will end the war sooner, and the two have reportedly discussed various peace plans. Do you believe Trump will prove positive or negative for Ukraine?
“Of course, we all know he promised this speedy process of getting this war to its solution, but no one really know what he means. But we have to remember that Putin is the only one who can end this war. Additionally, Trump also said he wants to end this war from the position of strong power, whatever that means. Remember there are not many tools or leverage that can be used against Putin. He is the only one who can end this war. That’s his own decision. Of course, Trump might create the conditions for that, but he’s not the one who will decide. Only Putin will decide what he wants to do, because he started this war.”
This war does seem to be Putin’s personal project. If he died tomorrow, would that instantly mean an end to hostilities?
“If it’s really going to happen and Putin will die tomorrow, then it’s going to be big holiday, and we probably will celebrate this for three days! People will give out free borscht in New York again to everyone, the same story as when Stalin died. Ha! We can dream. But if Putin would die, or would be removed from power, that is also optional, it’s not only the death of Putin that could change everything. If he is removed from power it would also be a big component in all this. That will help develop certain conditions and create a reset inside Russia that might lead to a situation when this war would be potentially resolved. Because the war we have right now, it’s very much Putin’s obsession. But that doesn’t take responsibility off every Russian that in any way actively participates in this war, who support Putin or supports this war, or even off those who stay silent all this time. It’s all their responsibility as well.”
You were one of the first film-makers to call for a global boycott of Russian-made films since the invasion, but some Ukrainian industry figures have argued that critical Russian dissident voices should still be given a platform. Do you believe in a blanket ban or a mixed approach?
“For me, it’s very clear. People of Russian regions who have been anti-Putin and anti-regime for many years, who usually reside at the moment somewhere in Europe, and make movies with independent funds: they definitely should be allowed, they should be able to show their position. But we have to be very careful of distinguishing this from the products of those directors or producers still living in Russia, who are still taking money from the Russian government, even through different shadow cultural funds, even those who are still through different channels co-operating with Russian authorities and producing these pro-Russian, pro-Kremlin narratives. Those those movies should be cancelled. “
“I would give the very clear example here. For example, Alkold Kurov, who is a famous documentary director, he was living in Russia until the very last moment. He was trying to be there because he was doing a very important job showing people inside Russia how freedom of speech is oppressed, How Novaya Gazeta, this island of freedom of speech, was closed in Russia. He made a movie about the rights of gay people in Chechnya and how they are badly treated there. He made a movie about how protests inside Russia were oppressed by the government. Now he left Russia. He’s well received in a cinema community, no one would dare to stand against him or say something against him.”
“The different example would be the movie director, who does not even have a Russian passport any more. She was travelling with Russian soldiers in the frontline for three months, and then made a movie Russians in War spreading the narrative that all these are ordinary Russians, ordinary poor people who have been sent to war. They try to make this sound equal between Ukrainians and Russians. But it’s really false argument because you could never put an equal sign between those people who came to kill you and those who’ve been violently killed by you. It’s victim and aggressor. How could someone spend three months on the frontline with Russian soldiers without the knowledge of FSB or Russian special agencies? FSB would never, ever let anyone spend three months on the battlefield. They would detect that person and kill them, or put them in a prison in two days time. That is just impossible. This is why Ukraine will keep calling for the cancelling of certain cultural products, because the Putin regime is using this soft power just to project itself as not that evil. Ukraine learned this the hard way. First you get Russian language, then a certain territory, then you get Russian culture there, then Russian tanks came to protect all that.”
Looking beyond your current military duties, are you hoping to direct films again soon?
“I definitely want to go back to the film-making process. I am at the frontline and in the military just because I have to be there right now, to protect my country. If there would be no Ukraine, there would be no Ukrainian movies. That’s very clear for me. But eventually, this war is not going to be endless. It will end one day, and I’m sure there will be a moment for me to go back to making movies. I have many plans, and one of those plans is also making the movie about this war. I actually have plans together with my partner and producer, Denis Ivanov, to make a movie in 2026. And so next year we will look for the funding for that. We had a plan to do this before the full-scale invasion, we wanted to start in 2022, but of course it’s been delayed for many years. In the next year or two, maybe there would not be end of the war, but probably some break, or just a bit more stable than this active fighting right now. Because that level of intensity is not going to last forever.”
