Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (Ukrainian: Зима у вогні: Боротьба України за свободу, Zyma y vohni: Borot'ba Ukrayini za svobodu) is a 2015 documentary film about the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine from 21 November 2013 to 23 February 2014.

Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom
Film poster
Directed byEvgeny Afineevsky
Produced byEvgeny Afineevsky
Den Tolmor
Pavlo Peleshok
Yuri Ivanyshyn
Narrated byCissy Jones
Release date
3 September 2015
(Venice Film Festival)
9 October 2015
(Worldwide)
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUkraine
United States
United Kingdom
LanguageUkrainian
Russian
English

Produced in part by Netflix, this film is a coproduction of Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom.[1]

Release

Winter on Fire was screened at various film festivals before its release on 9 October 2015 on the online streaming service.[2][3]

The film had its world premiere at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.[4] At the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, it won the People's Choice Award for best documentary.[5]

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 88%, based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5.[6] It also has a score of 79 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]

Jay Weissberg from Variety stated that Winter on Fire is an "accessible film, with greater TV appeal, but it’s also more limited by its insistence on shoehorning everything into one perspective, albeit a perspective shared by many."[8]

Accolades

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Primetime Emmy Award in the Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking category.[9]

Controversy

The film received criticism for showing several neo-Nazi symbols and flags used by extreme right wing protesters, left uncommented in the film. Several clips of footage of protests includes Black Sun symbols, swastikas, Stepan Bandera, Waffen-SS, and Right Sector imagery. The filmmakers has also received criticism for "white washing" the revolution by excluding, or refusing to comment, the neo-Nazi influences, Right Sector and other extreme right wing blocks in the Maidan rallies.[8][10][11]

Impact

Winter on Fire was widely shown around Venezuela in 2017 during the anti-government protests in Caracas, in which protesters were rallying against President Nicolás Maduro,[12][13] and the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.[14][15]

References
  1. "Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (programme note)". TIFF. Archived from the original on 9 September 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  2. Sapienza, Ethan (6 August 2015). "Thrilling Netflix Documentary 'Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom' to Premiere October 9". Indiewire. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  3. Fitzgerald, Sean (14 September 2015). "TIFF 2015: 'Winter on Fire' emotionally draining for director Evgeny Afineevsky". Toronto Sun. Postmedia Network. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  4. Farber, Stephen (2 September 2015). "'Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom': Venice Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  5. Tapley, Kristopher (20 September 2015). "'Room' Wins Toronto Film Festival's People's Choice Award". Variety. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  6. "Winter on Fire (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  7. "Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom". Metacritic. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  8. Weissberg, Jay (2 September 2015). "Venice Film Review: 'Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom'". Variety. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  9. Johnson, Zach (14 January 2016). "Oscars 2016 Nominations: Complete List of Nominees". E! Online. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  10. Cooter, Amy (19 March 2019). "Commentary: Ukraine's neo-Nazi problem". Reuters. pp. 365–383. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  11. Golinkin, Lev (18 February 2016). "The Heartbreaking Irony of 'Winter on Fire'". Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  12. "Venezuela: Euromaidan doc. 'Winter On Fire' is being shown in the streets of Caracas. Many Venezuelans are inspired by Ukraine". Venezuela.liveuamap.com. Archived from the original on 30 November 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  13. Ramirez, Victoria; Aponte, Andreina (29 June 2017). "Venezuela's shield-bearing protesters inspired by Ukraine". Reuters. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  14. Laurenson, Jack (7 August 2019). "Hong Kong protesters draw strong inspiration from Ukraine revolution". KyivPost. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  15. O'Sullivan, Mike (31 August 2019). "Hong Kong Christians Call for Reform". Voice of America. Retrieved 2 September 2019.


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