“Real”, an interview with director and soldier Oleh Sentsov

July 1, 2024

An immersion into the reality, and the meaninglessness, of the war

"Real", an interview with director and soldier Oleh Sentsov Bénédicte Prot

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“Real cannot be called a film. And it cannot be called a documentary. It is a document of this war recorded by accident during one battle.”

Ukrainian director and activist Oleh Sentsov tells us more about “Real“, a 90-minute document involuntarily filmed in the trenches, not as a filmmaker but as a soldier, which world-premiered as a Special Screening at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

This “accidental” film came with a preliminary message recorded by the filmmaker, also known for spending five years in jail as a political prisoner in Russia.

“My name is Oleh Sentsov. I am a film director and a soldier from Ukraine. I am currently at home on a short leave, after another rotation in Donbass. What you are about to see, the Real movie, is a documentary, small film. We just call it material, material about the war that was shot about a year ago during a major Ukrainian counteroffensive – unfortunately, an unsuccessful one. The incident occurred during one of the operations, when the infantry of our company was landed at the Real position and was encircled there. I was amongst the commanders who participated in the operation. The Bradley in which I was transported with the second wave of troops was hit. We were forced to take a different position, [in a trench further back] from the Real position. They were connected only by radio. Whilst checking whether my GoPro was still in place, I accidentally turned it on, and recorded a one hour and a half video which mainly shows radio conversations with the guys who are at the positions. This is a movie which has no editing, with no beginning and no end. It may have no meaning, because it does look like a war. The war has very little meaning either. Because war is very complicated, sometimes incomprehensible. Sometimes it is meaningless and always very tragic.“

Plot

"Acclaimed filmmaker, activist, Sakharov Prize-winning former Kremlin prisoner, and soldier Oleh Sentsov is currently defending his homeland as a lieutenant in the Ukrainian army, which he joined in the first days of the Russian invasion in February 2022. During one assault, his infantry fighting vehicle was destroyed by enemy artillery. His attempts to organize the evacuation of part of his unit were complicated by the lack of ammunition and incessant Russian fire. The name of the operation was Real, and Sentsov’s eponymous film is a unique immersive experience that offers a hyper-documentary insight into the reality of the war through the eyes of one direct participant." Karel Och, artistic director of the Karlovy Vary IFF

Written by: Bénédicte Prot

Guest

Oleh Sentsov

Film

Real

Festival

Karlovy Vary Film Festival

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