Venice (AFP)

Three films presented at the Venice festival paint a shocking picture of Ukraine, a country on the borders of Europe plagued by corruption and torn since 2014 by a conflict with the separatists supported by Russia.

- War of "Trenches" -

With "Trenches", a documentary presented out of competition, the French war journalist Loup Bureau closely follows the conflict in the Donbass region (east), where Ukrainian soldiers face separatists supported by Russia.

This cinematic journey immerses viewers in the harshness of 14-18 worthy wars of position in what is considered the most recent conflict on European soil.

"When we see a trench, we actually think of the First World War (...) I try to show that even today in the 21st century, these trench wars can still take place", explains Loup Bureau in an interview. with AFPTV.

With this first feature film, he wanted to "tell a war from a more psychological than physical aspect (...) In fact, the driving force of the film is the expectation, a kind of tension that is present, but which only explodes at certain times ".

"It is an environment which is very closed, where there is a very great promiscuity, we are in small spaces and there is something which is also akin to a psychological prison", confided the director.

He himself was jailed in 2017 in Turkey, where he was accused of terrorism after being arrested while filming near the Iraqi border.

In these trenches which resemble prisons, "we ask ourselves the question of what we will do if we go out, what we could have done with our lives".

"We ask ourselves questions about the meaning we want to give to our lives, and that is something that I found in all soldiers, this existential questioning".

- Torture -

Another facet of this conflict, the torture inflicted on prisoners of war, is explored by director Valentyn Vasyanovych in "Vidblysk (" Reflection "), in the running for the Golden Lion in Venice, where he was awarded in 2019 by the price of the Horizons parallel section for "Atlantis".

Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych presents "Vidblysk" ("Reflection") at the Venice Film Festival on September 7, 2021 Marco BERTORELLO AFP / Archives

The protagonist, a surgeon in civilian life, is captured by the Russian forces present in the east of the country and experiences a veritable descent into hell: humiliations, violence and torture.

"I was deeply struck by the fact that in contemporary Europe these cruel and totally inhuman practices can take place", confided the director during the press conference presenting the film.

These practices "have been going on for a long time and have not stopped" in "secret prisons run by the Russian secret services without any control", denounced the filmmaker, who captivates the viewer through still-lifes-like still shots where human beings are like common insects.

Faced with these acts, he admits his powerlessness: "What can we do? These territories are occupied. To stop torture, we must stop the war".

Another suggestion: "Everyone in the Western world should stop buying oil and gas from Russia, but I am well aware that the modern world does not work like that."

- Corruption -

After five years in Russian jails from 2014 to 2019 for protesting against the annexation of Crimea, Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, released during a prisoner exchange thanks to an international mobilization, decided to make a film to show how his country plunged into corruption in the 1990s.

Oleg Sentsov at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on February 1, 2020 in Park City, Utah Michael loccisano GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP / Archives

"Rhino", competing in the parallel section Horizons, chronicles the rise and fall of a delinquent in post-Soviet Ukraine plagued by corruption.

In an interview with AFP, the 45-year-old filmmaker, recipient of the 2018 European Parliament Sakharov Prize, believes that the solution to the current crisis must come first and foremost from the Ukrainians themselves: "We must solve the problems that affect our country, and first and foremost to fight corruption, so that we can move forward ".

According to him, "the economy is THE solution, because it is only when one obtains a prosperous and stable economy that one can obtain political independence".

© 2021 AFP