There is no such thing as an anti-war film, François Truffaut once famously claimed, because “every film about war ends up being pro-war.” The legendary French director’s comment has been widely interpreted to mean that the high-stakes danger of battle inevitably ends up as thrilling spectacle. But Ukrainian director turned military commander Oleh Sentsov is about to prove him wrong with Real, a close-up documentary shot in the middle of a battle on the frontline in Ukraine, which captures the boredom, confusion and slow-motion horror of 21st century trench warfare over 90 real-time minutes. As Sentsov recently explained, the film shows war as it really is: “ugly, incomprehensible, twisted and stupid.”
Recorded by accident on Sentsov’s helmet-mounted GoPro camera during last summer’s counteroffensive, just as Ukraine began pushing back against Russian forces in the south-east Zaporizhzhia region, Real may well be the first ever “found footage” war film. Presented raw and unedited, aside from minimal post-production tweaks, this is hardly a great piece of cinematic entertainment by conventional standards, but it is both a fascinating historical document and bold stylistic experiment. Following its world premiere in Karlovy Vary this week, it is very likely to grab further festival interest and more, based on its newsworthy subject and innovative, immersive format.
The Crimea-born Sentsov has a high-profile track record as film-maker, dissident and political prisoner. In 2014, after Putin’s forces illegally annexed Crimea, he was arrested by Russian authorities and accused of plotting terror attacks on the peninsula. Following a disputed confession, reportedly obtained by force, he was sentenced to 20 years in an Arctic penal colony. His trial was denounced by Amnesty and the global film community, including Russian directors Andrey Zvyagintsev and Alexander Sokurov. Following a five-month hunger strike in 2018, he was finally released under a prisoner exchange in September 2019.
Real is filmed entirely in a cramped military trench with the deafening whoosh and boom of bullets, mortar shells, drones and tanks serving as an ever-present background soundtrack. Sentsov and his men mostly exhibit a calm, resigned demeanour which defies their life-or-death situation, sheltering in the trench after their armoured vehicle was hit by enemy fire. Essentially a walking camera, the director never appears on screen but his gruff, barking voice figures prominently. As a key commander during the battle, he spends most of the film’s 90-minute run on his radio, desperately trying to arrange evacuation for wounded comrades and fresh ammunition for others pinned down by Russian forces – or “fuckers”, as the defenders call their invaders, with typically salty Ukrainian wit.
With its shaky camerawork, repetitive radio exchanges, and confined setting, Real has scant functional use as either rousing propaganda or journalistic reportage. But there is value in its wholly unstaged, uncalculated, observational insights into the banal boots-on-the-ground business of war, with the very real threat of sudden death hovering just outside every frame. There is surreal humour here too, when it emerges that the Ukrainian army name their positions after famous football teams: Real Madrid, Chelsea, Marseilles and more.
Although very little action happens on screen in Real, Sentsov’s determined effort to orchestrate a rescue for his stricken brothers in arms is gripping, part tragedy and part farce. The film ends abruptly, when the camera battery drains, but a blunt credits caption reveals that 22 Ukrainian fighters died in the battle. Three more of the men seen on screen have since been killed in action. Ukraine’s senior army command do not come out well from these chaotic events, and Sentsov did not seek their approval for his film, even hinting in interviews that he may be punished. All the same, he remains on active military duty, earning special permission to travel to his Karlovy Vary premiere.
Real was never planned as a film. Sentsov only discovered his accidental battlefield footage months after it was shot, and his initial impulse was to delete it. But after consulting with his long-time producer Denis Ivanov, he came to be persuaded that this material had value as a close-up record of an unfinished conflict. The director and his team then did some basic post-production work, mainly colour correction and sound mix, but essentially this is an authentic, immersive document of war in the raw. Real is real.
Increasingly compact, portable camera technology has made close-up battlefield documentaries from the frontline in Ukraine something of a growth genre in recent years. Some other notable examples include Eastern Front (2023) by Yevhen Titarenko and Vitaly Mansky, which premiered in Karlovy Vary last year, and Enemy in the Woods (2024), a BBC production directed by Jamie Roberts using Ukrainian army footage. Real is not the first or the finest film in this trend, but it a valuable piece of living history on its own uncompromising terms, the latest cinematic despatch from the tragic ongoing disaster movie of 21st century Russian imperialism.
Director, cinematography: Oleh Sentsov
Sound postproduction: Igor Kazmirchuk
Image postproduction: Oleksiy Moskalenko
Producers: Denis Ivanov, Oleh Sentsov, Mike Downey, Boris Matic
Production companies: Arthouse Traffic (Ukraine), Cry Cinema (Ukraine), Propeler Film (Croatia), Downey Ink (UK)
World sales: Arthouse Traffic
Venue: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (special screening)
In Ukrainian
90 minutes
