Alan in Belfast: 2000 Meters to Andriivka – brutal first-person footage of a bloody push towards the liberation of a strategic village in the war between Russia and Ukraine (Queen’s Film Theatre on Sunday 29 June as part of Docs Ireland) #docsireland7

A slender forest between two minefields is the route into the village of Andriivka. Two kilometres of contested space. Capturing Andriivka back from the Russians will cut off their supply line to a larger city. It has been the heavily fortified front line for the Ukrainian counteroffensive in September 2023.

Film director Mstyslav Chernov (20 Days in Mariupol) and journalist Alex Babenko negotiate to embed themselves with a platoon intent on liberating the village. A flag is being carried to be hoisted if and when they succeed.

If you watch 2000 Meters to Andriivka in a cinema setting, the opening scenes of conflict in the trenches will be sonically and visually immersive. Enemy drones equipped with explosives are spotted. Incoming artillery fire from Russian troops kills two soldiers. The personnel carrier sent to evacuate the Ukrainian unit gets stuck. More casualties follow, including the soldier whose helmet cam footage we’re watching.

The sound of explosions. Turning around. Firing off a few optimistic rounds in the direction of a threat. It’s like a watching a video game. Except this bloody reality is what video games are based on.

The command centre uses overhead drones to gather intelligence on enemy positions. When the camera feed starts to lag, everyone goes blind. A suicide drone can be seen exploding over the suspected enemy position. Moments like these are clinical. The loss of life is unseen.

Other footage throughout the 106-minute film is harrowing. Battle footage from soldiers in the 3rd Assault Brigade shows dead bodies and burnt out vehicles that are left behind in the crawl towards the target. Troops apply tourniquets to injured colleagues while gunfire rattles over the top of their heads. Negotiating with the last Russian soldier inside a trench to surrender or else be killed with a grenade they’ll throw into his hide. At times you’ll feel like flattening yourself against the ground.

During one of the lulls in the fighting, a soldier contemplates the changes he’ll make to life when he gets out of here. Just smoking a “normal amount” might be on the cards along with an evening stroll. A colleague enjoys the act of rolling his own cigarettes: it’s relaxing and takes time.

Chapter slides document progress towards Andriivka. The battlefield supplies most of the soundtrack, with Sam Slater’s uncluttered score faded up like a wailing banshee only when there’s a quiet moment.

After 75 minutes the film pauses for a funeral and women’s voices are finally heard, as partners and mothers grieve and process the cost of the conflict. A forest of flags flutter above a graveyard. Then we return to a final push towards Andriivka in the face of falling odds as the overall counter-offensive stalls.

While the film shows the grit and determination of the Ukrainian forces who have been ordered to capture this strategic location, it ultimately reinforces the futility of war. When they arrive, there’s barely anything left in the village that stands taller than a person. A small cat is the only survivor to greet them. The same village will be retaken by the Russians less than a year later. The cost on all sides is huge.

It’s is not a film about heroism. It’s not even a film about right pushing back on wrong. Instead, 2000 Meters to Andriivka is a memorial to the men who took part in this one tiny part of a much larger and longer conflict. It marks the names and faces and so many who lost their lives. And it is a testament to what happens, and who suffers, when capitulation isn’t an option.

2000 Meters to Andriivka is being screened in Queen’s Film Theatre at 18:15 on Sunday 29 June, the closing evening of the Docs Ireland festival of international documentary film.