The film that I am going to talk about is very grim. It talks about the inhumane acts that were done by the Russians during their invasion of Ukraine. This documentary, which is also Oksana Karpovych’s second feature, showed how the enemy was dehumanized and treated as if they were not even human beings but rather some creatures from another planet or something like that.
In 2024, what if cinema had already given us a film more powerful and disturbing than The Zone of Interest (2023)? An even colder and more brutal autopsy of the dehumanization of enemies than Jonathan Glazer? Only time will tell. It seems at least as emotionally explosive as it continues its journey through major festivals around the world after Ukrainian Canadian filmmaker Oksana Karpovych’s second documentary feature Intercepted premiered to two special mentions in Berlinale 2024’s Forum section before playing earlier this month and arriving in Canada for its Hot Docs 2024 world premiere this weekend.
Between March and November 2022, conversations between Russian soldiers stationed on Ukrainian soil and their loved ones back home were intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence services. This formed the basis for documentarian Oksana Karpovych’s simple yet deeply evocative, finely executed film.
On screen, the camera records moments from life during wartime. Stationary, it observes landscapes across Ukraine which bear signs of an almost silent but still devastating war. We see houses suddenly abandoned mid-life. Locals are shown confronting post-war realities through otherwise ordinary scenes of everyday life interrupted by bombings.
Sound-wise, these images are overlaid with phone recordings not from within battles themselves but their aftermaths in which Russian soldiers speak with loved ones left behind in Russia, often mothers or partners. These men break down; they puff up their chests; they relay truths that seem too heavy to carry. In fragments, evasions, confidences unwittingly or pointedly shared, they speak of what their operations entail.
What first emerges from these snippets is the impunity and fantasy of omnipotence of an army backed by an unwavering government. Russian soldiers occupy hastily evacuated civilian spaces and loot them with no fear of reprisal. Their arrogance recalls the same logic employed by the Israeli military as precisely described in Avi Moghrabi’s works. In this respect, Intercepted is not only rooted within the Russo-Ukrainian conflict but also stands as a veritable manual on aggressor psychology during wartime more generally.
Later on, it was their sense and pursuit of all-powerfulness that pushed the soldiers to go into much more unpleasant and bone-chilling details during their phone conversations. The murder of civilians, sometimes in a systematic way, the torture they inflict upon the old and so on. Confessions follow claims for ninety minutes of feature film it is an upsurge of savagery, bestiality motivated by visceral hatred for enemies. “I no longer have pity. Even civilians no longer make me feel sorry,” admits a soldier who killed people trying to escape from him; “They chose their fate, I don’t feel sorry for them,” answers his loved one sitting at home in Russia; “Fuck these people!” cries a mother “Dad! Kill all Ukrainians and come home!” begs a young girl. One might think that nothing could be scarier than when one hears a soldier saying how fun torturing and killing Ukrainian civils is for him but no: most terrifying here are justifications given by these dear ones. These women left behind who tell their man over phone to turn Ukrainians into kebabs, they are unbearable with words showing this system which makes other humans less human. It’s not said in the movie but as Russians speak we understand that lots of propaganda work must have been done so as to foster such hate towards Ukrainians as brothers-neighbors. These monsters are coldly cruel indeed some even confessing that they turned into different persons altogether during war time while being possessed by lowest instincts possible! And so listening becomes suffering.
For me, hearing these people calmly talking about what has happened far away from them is even worse than if I saw torture scenes right before my eyes.
And it is here where Oksana Karpovych shows her great strength through setting up the soldiers’ words against backdrops of destruction caused by them. In Rearview (2023) was an amazing film where Ukrainians who were forced to leave their homes spoke out; but Intercepted does just opposite it gives voice to those who attacked, killed. Ukrainians stay silent throughout the whole movie, diegetic sound is very soft thus we can hardly hear any distant murmur somewhere there. Only Russian soldiers and their relatives talk here. And these voices alone drown images of desolation with direct connection between such Machiavellian coldness on one side and ruinousness towards country’s territory as well as life of its people on another side. This arrangement makes these voices performative in deciding what should happen to Ukrainians.
Another thing cleverly hinted at by this film without being too obvious about it is that these men might also be victims. Victims not only of propaganda system but also of a State which sends them into battle without clear strategy; victims again because opaque military tactics cost many lives among soldiers themselves while official version propagated through Russian media claims total superiority over adversary. Yet like leitmotif throughout this work subjective shot repeats itself showing tank moving forward across Ukrainian landscape illustrating forced unstoppable march towards destruction brought about by protracted military offensive.
Where does that wave of fury and malice steer us into? Where can this release of brutality take us? Beyond the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Intercepted is a manual in understanding war as a whole; it serves as a record.
Intercepted itself is an incredibly difficult work. Oksana Karpovych wants to tell the story of war not by showing destroyed cities but by showing what happens right before. One act’s cruelty, which arises from one nation’s forced dehumanization by another. Because this machine is likely the scariest thing about it all.
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