Ten years after the release of his Academy Award®-nominated feature, Winter on Fire, and three years after Freedom on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (MVFF45 Power of Cinema Award), director Evgeny Afineevsky returns to Ukraine to chronicle the lives of children wounded during Russia’s ongoing invasion. A searing documentary that blends live-action footage with animated recreations and diary entries, Children in the Fire not only centers on the stories of the next generation of Ukrainians but truly thrusts viewers into the perspectives of its young subjects. From kids who survived abduction and mental abuse to those living with life-altering physical injuries, the documentary’s participants and their stories push viewers to engage with the harrowing, lesser-discussed truths about the years-long war. Above all else, Afineevsky’s use of animation and unflinching vision uniquely capture the experiences, both real and imagined, of resilient Ukrainian children who boldly pursue their futures despite coming of age during wartime. —Kate Bove
Evgeny Afineevsky
Evgeny Afineevsky began his directing career in 1999 and has made features, shorts, and works for television. In 2015, he made the first of his films about the situation in Ukraine, Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, earning Oscar® and Emmy nominations and winning the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award. Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (MVFF45) won MVFF’s Power of Cinema Award and was nominated for three Emmys. His documentary Cries from Syria (2017) garnered four Emmy nominations, a Humanitas prize, and the International Documentary Association’s Courage Under Fire Award.