2000 Meters to Recognition
The 2026 Oscars weren't really surprising. Considering how good "One Battle After Another" was, and how unlikable and annoying Timothee Chalamet turned out to be in the last couple of weeks, the awards were quite fair. Regardless, I had to disagree with one certain section, which normally doesn't have enough buzz around it: The best documentary.
A couple of weeks ago, after the nominees were announced, I asked my Ukrainian friend to watch "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" with me. I already watched that film once, and we did watch 2000 Meters to Andrievka together, so I thought it might be a good idea to revisit David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin's work as well. However, my suggestion was aggressively rejected by her, and I didn't rewatch the documentary in the end.
My first impression after watching "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" was quite positive. While I thought the second was lacking so hard, and it fell to the basic view of "Putin is bad / everyone else is good", I still saw it as a better-than-nothing documentary. On the other hand, "2000 Meters to Andriivka" was one of the most unsettling things I've watched in a long time. It reminded me of how I was feeling during Elem Klimov's "Come and See", capturing the true essence of war, destruction, grief, and agony. "2000 Meters to Andriivka" is without a doubt a better documentary with a more radical tone that displays horrors of war most disturbingly, and not only condemns the actions of Putin, but also the Russian soldiers who kill Ukrainians with no remorse afterwards. "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" plays safe, and that is why it gets the accolades that the other movie arguably deserves. No one can deny Pavel Talankin's efforts to oppose the propaganda and its impact on the youth, but I don't think they are the main victims of this war at the moment.
Now I could understand why my friend was angry because of my suggestion. It was like giving awards to a movie about the issues of Israeli kids in school during the current war, without any direct mention of many of those who died or were displaced under the US/Israeli missiles. It's not a morally corrupt move, but considering both technical and artistic values, "2000 Meters to Andriivka" was the biggest snub of the year.