Still Life With Russian Woodpecker

As previously noted (https://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2020/02/blog-post.html), Україна  / Ukraine has been on my mind of late. So I hopped over to Kanopy and looked to see what I could see. And there I found a documentary entitled The Russian Woodpecker (2015). Which I've just finished watching. And? 

It really took my breath away. I mean that in the punched me in the stomach and left me gasping sense.

It's "about" several things, but the primary focus is on a young man by the name of Fedor Alexandrovich. A very interesting young man. (I definitely want to know more about him...but I'm having trouble tracking down information.) He and his cinematographer, Artem Ryzhykov (who is so much more than a cameraman; he is a big part of the heart and soul of this whole thing), go to Chernobyl, and eventually come to believe that the accident there was no accident...and that the destruction of the nuclear power plant was staged in order to cover up for the soon to be revealed failure of the Duga radar station...a very expensive installation. It's on the order of the 9/11 Truth Movement revelations. Which, of course, means that it has been dismissed as nonsense by the powers that be...which should sound familiar. It is always in the interests of those in power to keep their dirtiest deeds hidden, after all. I thought that Fedor and Artem made a convincing case, personally.

But while that is the center of this documentary, it is also very much about the fight for Ukranian independence. And the scenes showing people facing off against the Russian soldiers are incredibly potent. As I watched those Ukrainians being beaten and killed, two thoughts kept running through my head: (1) what can we (as individuals) do to help them? and (2) how DARE Trump fuck around with the Ukrainians and President Zelensky. I was outraged at it before seeing this movie. Now I am beyond outrage. Put into the context given by this movie, it is clear that Trump's evil here is so pernicious, so loathsome, that if he had been a saint for his entire life before and after he interfered with Ukraine, he would still be sucked into hell the moment his heart stops beating. 

Seriously.

If that's not enough to get you to go looking for this movie, then let me just add that I was absolutely spellbound by HBO's Chernobyl. And The Russian Woodpecker is, in a very real sense, a part of that story.