"The Battle for Kyiv" - A review

Reflections on Oz Katerji's first conflict film.

More than two years into the full-scale conflict, it is sometimes easy to forget the atmosphere of the early days of the Ukraine war. As someone already familiar with and fond of the country, and with several friends living there, it was a blur of anxiety, dread, and hope. The knotty anticipation of early 2022, trying to persuade oneself that it was all a bluff gave way to horror as the attack was launched. Each day and night then spent tracking the news, fearing the worst before gradually daring to believe that Kyiv would hold out entirely.

A new film, made by war journalist Oz Katerji, supported by Byline Times is a sensitive and shocking reminder of those early weeks of the war. The Battle for Kyiv, as the name suggests, charts those moments from the eve of war until the retreat of the Russians and the liberation of the occupied territory. Assembled mostly from Oz’s first-hand footage, interspersed with news archive material, it walks through the frightening atmosphere of the start of Europe’s biggest conflict since the Second World War.

We see Oz, and his hastily assembled team of contacts and fixers, traverse the confusion of the conflict. On day one, he walks through the empty streets of central Kyiv, touring the hastily assembled tank traps and caltraps. A few days later, he has found his way to the front, embedded with locals transporting aid, dodging between Russian patrols. He skirts the edge of occupied territory, artillery constantly ringing out in the background. Finally, as the threat to the capital recedes, he enters Bucha and Irpin, for a frank reckoning with the destruction wrought and the crimes committed by the occupiers.