Oleh Sentsov’s unplanned, haunting documentary about the Ukraine war

“Real” (courtesy of Arthouse Traffic)

The embattled director (turned lieutenant in the Ukrainian Defense Forces) literally takes us into the trenches with a single 90-minute shot from an accidentally turned-on GoPro camera.

Many great movies are based on happy accidents: certain intangible chemistry and tricks of timing that even the most sophisticated auteur can’t calculate. In the far rarer case of Real, the entire film is an accident, and a vital one rather than a happy one. The film was accidentally shot when director Oleh Sentsov – who works not as a filmmaker but as a lieutenant in the Ukrainian armed forces – was dug in with his unit during a dangerous battle in the early days of the war against Russia. The film captures the horror and claustrophobia of trench warfare with an immediacy that no big-budget fictional war film could match. And it’s all thanks to a GoPro camera on Sentsov’s helmet that he accidentally turned on while checking his gear.

The result is simple and difficult to categorize: In his stage directions for “Real,” Sentsov excludes the terms “film” and “documentary,” though the film’s cinematic appeal and power are clear to see. Cynical notions that the shooting may not have been as accidental as claimed are dashed by the relative absence of incident in the footage. It shows no crucial point in the plight of the men anxiously awaiting evacuation, and only ends when the camera battery dies. That’s not to say “Real” lacks tension or urgent human drama: Sentsov’s film, which premiered in entirely uncut form at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, may not have the narrative breadth or framing of the recent Oscar winner “20 Days in Mariupol,” but it stands alongside it as a gripping, unwatchable account of an ongoing atrocity.

Beyond the film’s tight scope, “Real” also adds a compelling chapter to the illustrious career of Sentsov himself — a Crimean-born filmmaker and activist whose arrest and subsequent imprisonment in 2014 for his participation in the Maidan uprising sparked worldwide protests and a 145-day hunger strike of his own before he was finally released in 2019. Joining the Ukrainian army after the 2022 Russian invasion may be a fearless move for a man already teetering on the brink, but Sentsov doesn’t seek to make himself a hero in a film essentially shot from his point of view. Obviously he’s not in the picture the entire time, but he’s a reserved and pragmatic voice, often acting as a terse mediator between the men of his unit and the orders given over a precious working radio.

Trapped with them in a narrow, dirt-strewn trench, we can’t see beyond it either, although the jolting sounds of battle and ricochets can be heard overhead. (Big thanks to Igor Kazmirchuk for his vivid, unsettling sound post-production.) But gradually, as the men exchange and relay words, we can mentally picture the layout of the site. It turns out that Sentsov – codenamed “Grunt” throughout – took shelter in the trench shortly after his tank was destroyed by Russian fire. Help is on the way, though no one can say exactly when; meanwhile, ammunition, water and other supplies are running alarmingly low. What details and coordinates we can’t make out from the scratchy radio messages are made up for by the film’s dank atmosphere – the fear, barely suppressed in the drawn, haunted faces the camera captures, that this unsightly hollow might be the last place they ever see.

Amid the panic, there is also a bit of rueful humor. “The day after tomorrow there’s a new plan and we’re going to fucking Barcelona,” sighs one soldier. “And in Barcelona we’ll get fucked too, 100%.” ​​There’s no macho military posturing here, and the prevailing mood in the trenches is one of despair and hopelessness over a war they still want to fight. “Real” (the code name of the military operation, but an apt title for the film’s blunt candor) serves as a testament to their bravery and fear, though it’s hardly a boastful tribute – least of all when an end title speaks bluntly of “the 22 Ukrainian soldiers (who) will stay in Real forever.” Sentsov has lived to tell the tale, or at least to find the footage. But an end, let alone a moral, is not yet in sight.