Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

Name: Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom
Genre: Documentary
Released: October 9, 2015
Duration: 102 min
Rating: 79

2015

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Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 58 Ratings

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6.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 58 Ratings

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Winter On Fire: Ukraine's Fight For Freedom (US)

Now Playing: Winter On Fire: Ukraine's Fight For Freedom (US)

Movie Details & Credits

Netflix | Release Date: October 9, 2015 | Not Rated

Summary: A documentary on the unrest in Ukraine during 2013 and 2014, as student demonstrations supporting European integration grew into a violent revolution calling for the resignation of President Viktor F. Yanukovich.

Director: Evgeny Afineevsky

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 102 min

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Critic Reviews

The Playlist Ken Guidry

Oct 8, 2015

This is a documentary that reminds you of the resiliency of the human spirit. The resourcefulness that can take place when you have nowhere else to run. Read full review

IndieWire Eric Kohn

Oct 5, 2015

With up-close footage of police beatings and hordes of angry protestors calling for the country's president to resign, Winter on Fire features the intensity of an action movie and the fury of a clear-eyed polemic. Read full review

Tricia Olszewski

Oct 10, 2015

The documentary is a testament to the human spirit, to unity in times of depravation, to the ability of common individuals to effect change at the highest level. Read full review

Oleg Ivanov

Oct 8, 2015

This is activist filmmaking that manages to be both angry and elegiac in its recounting of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

Feb 11, 2016

Winter on Fire has all the immediacy and power of drama. If it lacks the dispassionate context of more balanced journalism, it makes up for it with a complex, contradictory emotional impact that is simultaneously demoralizing and hopeful. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Godfrey Cheshire

Oct 9, 2015

Though the film is limited by a point of view that’s too polemically reductive, the idealistic, difficult, sometimes lethal struggles it covers are undeniably revelatory and moving. Read full review

Jay Weissberg

Oct 8, 2015

Getting swept up in the immediate excitement is entirely understandable, but ignoring the less savory elements, such as ultra-nationalist rhetoric, is problematic at best. Read full review

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User Reviews

ep1demic

Nov 12, 2020

It's hard to watch this film - too many memories.
What I can say - the scenes shown in this film is a complete truth.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

3ebfan511

Mar 1, 2016

I had already watched a fair amount of maidan footage on youtube, so I was not expecting this to be anything new to me, and the first 30 minutes was some of what I had already seen, but it does get better as it goes along, and by the end it was extremely powerful, with stuff I had never seen before.

5 of 12 users found this helpful57

Smoothrunner

Jan 15, 2016

Almost two years have past since the events depicted in the "Winter of Fire". All this time I was reluctant to watch any documentaries dedicated to Maidan, since all these terrible and magnificent events were to fresh in my memory and I thought that any incorrect documentary will onlyAlmost two years have past since the events depicted in the "Winter of Fire". All this time I was reluctant to watch any documentaries dedicated to Maidan, since all these terrible and magnificent events were to fresh in my memory and I thought that any incorrect documentary will only outrage me. My own and my family's participation in the Revolution was humble but nevertheless it left deep emotional scars. I remember my night-watches, and the moment when I dissuaded my old parents from participation in the February 18th meeting near Parliament since I was convinced that it will be a massacre. Another of my family member, former military, is still proud of participation in clashes with the Berkut on Hrushevskoho street. So it was to personal for me to allow some film director to spoil those memories.

However incidentally I've read a positive review on "Winter on Fire" from another participant of those events who praised the documentary for it's accuracy in depicting the Revolution. So I decided to watch it. And I was stunned by its thoughtful and correct retrace of facts without silly surface comments or assessments. Maybe Berkut's and police cruelty was a little bit softened (they've intentionally tortured to death some protesters, like Yuriy Verbitsky, intentionally crippled numerous protesters by firing in their eyes with rubber-bullets, braking bones, even beheaded people, many people are still considered missing), and the spirit of mutual aid and respect on Maidan not enough emphasized, but still this documentary is unbelievably correct with facts and the spirit of Maidan. I was overwhelmed by revived memories and emotions watching it. It is true, that "EuroMaidan" ended on 29th of November. On the 30th of November near the St Michael's Monastery completely new Maidan has been born and the Revolution of Dignity started it slow pace which is still in progress due to seemingly hopeless wars Ukrainian nation is waging - against Russian army invasion and against corruption which is plaguing our outdated "territorial" elites fostered by Russia instead of national elite thoroughly murdered during the Soviet Russia's occupation of Ukraine (1921 - 1991).

This documentary's authors did truly grate job by restoring so scrupulously events of this terrifying yet magnificent Revolution. It's like I lived again through all those scary and dignified days. Sense of the presence of God are correct words to describe those feelings - it felt like frighteningly majestic Spirit was there on Maidan with all those people, who, despite the odds, continued to believe in the ultimate victory and who were ready to sacrifice themselves for the things many others consider abstract and non-essential - freedom, dignity and patriotism.

For those, who want wider political context - it's all there in the documentary. Standing behind Yanukovych's back is puppeteer Putin, trying to revert Ukrainian nation from its choice to be a European country rather than Russian colony. Government without its own voice, filled with Yanukovych's old "friends" and subordinates from his so-called "family" - his business clan. Parliament, to scared of Yanukovych, to make independent decisions. So-called "leaders of opposition", representatives of our "territorial elites", unable to take responsibility for anything - miserable men completely unfit for the grandiose historical moment they were participating. And mysterious reborn of an old nation - Ukrainian nation, with its thousand years of complex history, which almost lost itself under 300 years of occupation by Russia and suddenly revived and fighting for its future.

This documentary though it's thoroughly accurate, is enthralling and dramatic like best Hollywood movies, like Maidan was. It will immerse you into the dramatic and magnificent story of the Ukrainian Revolution, into the heights of the human spirit, bravery, unselfishness and heroism, and into the depths of human decline, fear, cruelty and cynicism. "Winter on Fire" is beautifully crafted, deeply involving, with great music and true story.… Expand

6 of 14 users found this helpful68

sachineldho

Oct 17, 2020

This is not a historical documentary, this is propaganda. The film is trying hard to white-wash a neo-Nazi revolution as a fight for freedom.

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

arostislavna

Mar 6, 2022

Biased propaganda. Biased propaganda. Biased propaganda. Biased propaganda. Biased propaganda. Biased propaganda. Biased propaganda. Biased propaganda. Biased propaganda.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

Mrexreturns

Oct 13, 2016

THIS GETTING SO MANY GREEN REVIEWS IS REAL PROOF OF THE END OF HUMANITY!

Lies: Euromaidan is for democracy of Ukraine. Truth: It is a collapse program presented by our lovely powers within who want war and collapse. Same thing as in the French and Russian revolutions of age old. Lies: TheTHIS GETTING SO MANY GREEN REVIEWS IS REAL PROOF OF THE END OF HUMANITY!

Lies: Euromaidan is for democracy of Ukraine.
Truth: It is a collapse program presented by our lovely powers within who want war and collapse. Same thing as in the French and Russian revolutions of age old.

Lies: The protesters are freedom fighting students fighting for their freedom.
Truth: They are paid thugs who came here to destroy and oust a legit government. And notice the word "Freedom Fighters" is double speak and is a variant of Dragon Fighter but instead fights Freedom, not Fight for Freedom. Of course, i cannot exclude the sheer amount of clueless people who don't have an idea what they are coming into. These people should be ashamed for helping the powers within destroy their own country.

Also, just another note; This "Revolution" will be near your doorstep in America in 2020!

Do not be fooled; This is the same thing they did in Bourbon France, Czarist Russia, Nationalist China, Weimar Germany, Yugoslavia, Libya and Syria and very soon Hong Kong. You need to be very foolish to be fooled by this scheme which is practiced since 12000 years before.

Collapse a corrupt but legit government, replace it with an even more corrupt and illegitimate one. Divide the country, start a revolution, cause chaos, cause collapse, cause civil war, cause purges, then total dictatorship.

"All people makes mistakes; But only a fool repeats one."… Expand

5 of 10 users found this helpful55

MAGA_Man

Aug 6, 2016

Documentaries often tend to be propagandistic, but this is one of the worst I've seen. You'd swear the Maidan revolution was just a bunch of bright-eyed youths with guitars and facepaint, like a European version of Occupy Wall Street. The truth, as usual, is a lot more complicated, includingDocumentaries often tend to be propagandistic, but this is one of the worst I've seen. You'd swear the Maidan revolution was just a bunch of bright-eyed youths with guitars and facepaint, like a European version of Occupy Wall Street. The truth, as usual, is a lot more complicated, including a significant fascist and ultra-nationalist presence among the protestors and a lot of ambiguity (which the movie completely removes) about who started the violence at several crucial points.

Mostly it just seems like an attempt to get Western audience riled up against Big Bad Vladimir Putin (boo! hiss!) to justify more neocon interventions against Syria and Crimea. Do not watch this unless you want to see a very twisted, 1-sided, inaccurate portrayal of these events.… Expand

10 of 18 users found this helpful108

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