2000 Meters to Andriivka: "War is slowly crawling around us and touching all of us. So the question of how to remain human is the core question of our survival in the modern world."

vHopeful Conversations Podcast · Feb 13, 2026 · 28m

In this conversation, Ukrainian director, novelist, and war correspondent Mstyslav Chernov reflects on 2000 Meters to Andriivka as a deeply personal follow‑up to 20 Days in Mariupol, shifting from documenting unbearable loss to showing how ordinary people who’ve lost everything fight back for their homes, memories, and agency. He describes choosing Andriivka—a village and forest that mirror his own childhood landscapes—as a symbolic microcosm of the war, and explains how the film’s helmet‑cam immersion matters less for its combat than for the fragile, intimate moments with soldiers joking…