I followed the Ukraine War religiously for months but even a news addict like me had to pace myself since it has dragged on for so long. This harrowing documentary takes us back to the earliest days of the war, focusing on one journalist’s perspective in the ill-fated city of Mariupol. Its narrow focus means that it makes no attempt to explain the broader context of the conflict. But being able to see the invasion of the city on a day-to-day basis gives it an authenticity and emotive impact like no other.

At the onset of the invasion, Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues decide to go to Mariupol. It is a large city that is closest to the Russian border and will no doubt will a priority target. On the first day, he meets a panicked local woman. He tells her to stay at home, that it’s safe as the Russians won’t target civilians. He is proven wrong as just a few days later he runs into the same woman again and her house has been hit by artillery. This pattern will repeat as the team shoot footage of victims at a hospital and later asks if they survived. They move from one hospital to another to document the grievous harm and loss of life caused by the indiscriminate attacks. Soon they are the last remaining team of international journalists in the city and therefore the only ones who can continue to supply footage and news of what is happening to the rest of the world. At one point, they meet Vladimir, a local policeman, who takes it upon himself to guide them to the only spot in the city where they can still get mobile data coverage for their phones, allowing them to send at least some of their videos and reportage out. As Russian forces pierce ever deeper into the heart of the city, it only gets worse and worse.

This documentary is pretty much peak war journalism as it doesn’t get more real than this. They capture live footage zooming about the skies above the city, have to flee when a Russian tank turns its turret towards the building they are in, and use their cameras to take in the full extent of the injuries and deaths in all their horror. As Chernov states, they practically have an obligation to do so, to force the world to turn their faces towards the goriness and confront the people who are responsible instead of shying away. We directly see the impact of their work as selected snippets of their footage are shown on news channels all over the world. The film is even courageous enough to show the uglier side of the Ukrainians, the looting as their society breaks down and chaos descends on the city and a man who has evidently bought into the Russian narrative and accuses the Ukrainians as being the ones doing the bombing. It is clear that the Ukrainian authorities see the immense value in what they are doing and make an extraordinary effort to extract them and their footage.

I did have some issues with the editing early on. They seem worried that the documentary will hold on to the audience’s attention and so frontload the most exciting combat scenes as a sort of preview. This detracts from the pacing and lessens the impact when the journalists do find themselves behind the frontlines. I also feel that they focus inordinately on what is happening in the hospitals. Granted, that’s where all the pain and suffering is and so it has the most dramatic impact. But this also means they’ve missed stories like the continuing exodus of residents out of the city which they don’t show until it’s time for them to leave themselves or any interviews at all with any Ukrainian authorities still remaining.

Make no mistake, this is absolutely fantastic work of war journalism and a concrete example of how critically important such work is. Of course the Russian side also understands this and so has made every effort to discredit their work. There really is no such thing as neutrality while standing in a war zone but we can strive for authenticity and honesty and that’s what the team here has achieved.