Ukraine War-Themed ‘When It Started To Burn’ Debuts On Field Of Vision
EXCLUSIVE: On the 35th anniversary of Ukrainian Independence Day, Field of Vision is launching a new documentary on Ukraine’s valiant fight to maintain its freedom.
When It Started to Burn debuted on the Field of Vision platform Monday, the third in a trilogy of short films from director Anders Hammer that examine “conflicts and civilian resilience across the globe.” His 2023 film The Takeover centered on the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan after the U.S. military withdrawal; Do Not Split, a chronicle of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, earned an Academy Award nomination in 2021.
We understand Hammer immediately traveled to Kyiv after Russia embarked on its “special military operation” in Ukraine (as Russian President Putin euphemistically put it) in February 2022. Four years’ worth of filming have gone into the making of When It Started to Burn.
The documentary short “focuses on the civilians making great efforts to contribute to the resistance [against Russian aggression] in every possible way,” notes a synopsis. “As the fighting continues with no end in sight, the mental impact of war becomes clearer, and lives are changed forever.
“Following the journey of Kseniia, a Kyiv local who sets up a volunteer center while her children seek refuge abroad, we witness as landscapes are rendered unrecognizable and neighborhoods are abandoned in the Ukrainian capital. Yet as years pass and the war rages on, Kseniia must choose between fleeing herself to reunite with family or staying behind to protect what’s left of what she once called home.”
The film not only documents the brutality of war, but “the kindness of humans finding solidarity in the face of extreme danger.”
Ukrainian Independence Day marks the day in 1991 when Ukraine achieved its freedom from a collapsing Soviet Union. (Putin, in his attempt to capture Ukraine, appears intent on trying to reestablish Russian hegemony over not only Ukraine but potentially all Eastern Europe).
Filmmaker Anders Hammer on April 26, 2021 in Oslo, Norway.
Francisco Seco-Pool/Getty Images
Anders Hammer’s additional credits include the documentary series Our Allies, set in Syria and Iraq, for Field of Vision. Escape from Syria: Rania’s Odyssey, published by The Guardian, won a Webby Award and a One World Media Award for Best Refugee Reporting in 2018; it has gained more than 10 million views and 100,000 shares on social media.
In Hammer’s native Norway, he has directed nine documentaries for the Norwegian investigative journalism program NRK Brennpunkt.
Field of Vision, founded in 2015, is a “filmmaker-driven non-profit organization that commissions and supports films, filmmakers, journalists and artists that use innovative and artistic ways to explore contemporary global issues through a cinematic lens, and push the boundaries of nonfiction storytelling.” Its impressive slate includes American Factory, winner of the 2020 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, and the Oscar-nominated features Soundtrack to a Coup d’État, Ascension, Strong Island, and Hale County This Morning, This Evening; and the Oscar-nominated shorts A Night at the Garden, In the Absence, and Do Not Split.
You can watch When It Started to Burn here.
