This documentary is so bleak that it’s going to be very hard for it to find its audience. This is a shame because it shows what countless movies have shown, only for real: how exposure to the battlefield, whether as an observer or a participant, inalterably changes a person. A few Vietnam memoirs have captured this in text form, but this Ukrainian documentary, codirected by Colombian Juan Camilo Cruz with its cinematographer and subject Artem Rhyzykov, shows it in the raw, unspooling over the years with self-shot footage. A very few of the shots it includes, such as those of dogs eating battlefield corpses, are a horror, but the main, compulsive, central burgeoning horror is psychological. And that makes this an exceptionally important film, but one which is very, very tough to see.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 Artem had a reputation as one of the nation’s finest cinematographers, who has decided to contribute to the war effort by documenting a battalion. His loving wife has been packed off to safety in Poland but it’s pretty obvious Artem is not cut out for the soldier’s life either. By which is meant, he shrieks in fear at every gunshot or nearby explosion and doesn’t appreciate the mockery of the soldiers he is documenting. But as time marches on and it becomes apparent that the Russian invasion will not be over soon, Artem’s mood starts to shift. He starts to wonder if he is actually contributing anything through his filming, especially when some of his forays out involve putting the lives of fighting men at risk. It all happens slowly, but the GoPro cameras hooked onto helmets and guns make it feel unbelievably palpable and immediate, especially since this is genuine war footage shot from positions of danger. And then it starts to become clear we are watching something deeply personal, deeply unusual and incredibly valuable: Artem turns into a soldier. And with the cameras so up close and personal, we are complicit in the change, and the choices made which lead to it.
That change has been profound. Mr. Rhyzykov only met Mr. Camilo Cruz at the Sheffield DocFest; they collaborated over emails and dropbox folders. At the screening I attended Mr. Rhyzykov sneered at us in the audience for coming, for thinking of his story as entertainment. In between the insults he told us he made it for himself so that he could work out what he thought about the journey he’s been on this past couple of years and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. Mr. Camilo Cruz was calmer and more aware of the wider value of this story and the importance of their collaboration in shaping A Simple Soldier for the screen. If it had been an outsider to Ukraine it would have held less immediacy and if it had been Mr. Rhyzykov working alone it would have been too awful to watch. It is still awful to see, no question of that. But it gets the balance almost right, and above all it’s so rare to be allowed into the horror of war from the inside that it’s extremely important viewing.
A Simple Soldier recently played at the Sheffield DocFest.
Learn more about the film at the Sheffield site for the title.
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