Iron Butterflies (Documentaries)
Director: Roman Liubyi
Producer: Andrii Kotliar, David Armati Lechner, Isabelle Bertolone, Trixi Götze, Volodymyr Tykhyy
Screenwriter: Mila Zhluktenko, Roman Liubyi
Cinematographer: Andrii Kotliar
Composer: Anton Baibakov, Oleksandra Morozova
In this surreal and haunting documentary, a Ukrainian filmmaker obsessively sifts through the shrapnel of the MH17 plane crash.
When Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukrainian airspace in 2014, killing all 298 passengers on board, international investigators found a Russian missile was responsible. The highly mediated fallout included a swathe of propaganda spread by Russian authorities, who denied involvement, setting a dangerous precedent and auguring their justifications for invading Ukraine in 2022.
Can cinema represent unthinkable violence without becoming complicit? This problem has plagued some of the greatest documentaries of recent years and likewise lies at the heart of Iron Butterflies. Faced with a barrage of misinformation, director Roman Liubyi eschews straightforward reportage for a sensorial assemblage of found and original video – archival footage, media clips, extensive interviews, surreal re-enactments and even interpretive dance – in his search for truth. The result is both a profoundly moving elegy for MH17’s victims and an impassioned plea for global peace.
“Art raging against injustice … Liubyi passionately assembles the pieces to this testimony of a broken system, using a cinematic cynicism that is often moving in a way optimism is not.” – RogerEbert.com