HEROES NEVER DIE

Directed by:  Akhtem Seitablayev

Starring:   Vyacheslav Dovzhenko, Roman Yasinovskiy, Andrey Isaenko

Depicting the events of the second battle of Donetsk Airport, the film follows a group of Ukranian soldiers under siege by Russian-backed separatists…

In 2014, the world witnessed the turmoil that Ukraine was in, with the overthrow of President Yanukovich leading to Russia annexing Crimea. However what happened after may not be so clear, and Heroes Never Die gives a fair idea.

It is, ultimately, a frustrating film to watch. It starts with "in media res", setting up the audience to expect a climactic battle which never materialises. The characters are all politically savvy and each has their own monologue explaining why they are fighting, which we are treated to at intervals throughout. There's a lot of political arguing and finger-pointing between generations.

The film is mainly concerned with the conditions that the soldiers are fighting in. The airport is a wreck (thanks in part to a previous battle that happened there earlier in the year). The one road in and out of the airport is constantly attacked, forcing convoys to take their chances among shell fire. The soldiers themselves suffering from sleep deprivation and low morale.

The film does manage to put together some decent action scenes among all the talking and horseplay. There is a decent firefight at the terminal - its difficult at times to discern who's who but I think that was kind of the point. Then there's the tense meeting out on the runway to exchange prisoners with their Russian counterparts.

Having a title like "Heroes Never Die" raises a certain amount of expectation in the audience and, coupled with the first scene of the film, it just leads to frustration and disappointment. We do get some semblance of a battle, involving tanks no less, but the scene just peters to a halt once one of the soldiers is injured. As Milhouse once said in The Simpsons: When are we getting to the fireworks factory?

THE VERDICT

There is no denying the significance of Heroes Never Die for depicting such recent an event, and I am sure the film has played well in its home country. It is very difficult for us in the West to comprehend the impact of having your country ripped in two but even so I doubt it would mean soldiers continually walk around spouting political rhetoric at each other. This is a technically well made film and does manage to raise the pulse on a couple of occasions, but commits the cardinal sin of setting us up for a payoff which never arrives.

5 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)