Weak, One-Sided Propaganda. Should Not Be In Running for Best Doc.

While Winter on Fire is an otherwise decent (missing plenty of elements, though) retelling of the basic chronology of the street battles, it was way too much of an anti-Russia agitprop piece (though it omitted any real mention of Putin or Russia until the end), and too little documentary. It tells you nothing about Ukraine or the political forces in play, only that the police attacked 'the people' in the square.

While I feel that the Putinite Russian media has greatly overemphasized the presence of fascist groups in Ukraine, groups like Right Sector were indeed a factor in these protests. This was not even momentarily addressed. Nor were any of the international politics that swirled around Maiden. Russia has their interests in Ukraine, as does the United States. The filmmakers were perfectly free to support one side over the other, but to simply omit any mention of political struggle in favour of endless romanticization of the protesters makes this more propaganda and less documentary.

While my sympathies always lie with peaceful protesters assaulted by security forces (and I myself would have sided with the protesters over the East which has more economic ties with Russia), the film was excessive in portraying them as uniformly angelic. The melodramatic score was completely over the top, and their consistent use of shots of young, beautiful Ukrainian girls whenever they were talking about the 'aspirations of the people' and 'the soul of the Ukraine' etc. was difficult to stomach. It was all quite heavy-handed and manipulative.

As a documentary it's most egregious crime was that it suggests (to the American Netflix audience) that these protesters were representative of the people of Ukraine as a whole, when the reality is that Ukraine was deeply divided on the issue. I was shocked that the film never mentioned the divide. Not once. It was simply portrayed as The Ukrainian People vs. The Russian Puppet State. This is little better than Russian state-aligned propaganda which claimed that it was Democracy vs. Fascism. I was expecting more. I learned nothing new watching this film.

the roman empire never died, it just turned into the catholic church