20 Days in Mariupol
| Release Date: July 14, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 4, 2023
This searing film bears a terrible witness to this great crime. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJul 14, 2023
The narrator tells us that a doctor said to him, “War is like an X-ray. All human insides become visible. Good people become better; bad people, worse.” Such astute observations, together with the harrowing imagery, lift “20 Days in Mariupol” to the ranks of the great war documentaries. Read full review
100
The New York TimesJason FaragoJul 13, 2023
20 Days in Mariupol, a relentless and truly important documentary, engulfs us in the initial ferocity of Russia’s siege of a city whose name has become a byword for this war’s inhumanity: My Lai, Srebrenica, Aleppo, Mariupol. Read full review
100
ColliderTherese LacsonFeb 9, 2023
There is no comfort when watching 20 Days in Mariupol, but it's the bitter pill we must all swallow to remind ourselves of what people are going through every day in Ukraine. Chernov's account is but a snippet of the war and should galvanize people into action. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJul 21, 2023
Acrid and harrowing, it’ll slap you awake. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJul 14, 2023
20 Days in Mariupol, about the first 20 days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, spares no one's sensibilities. It goes on a short list of great documentaries that the viewer will never want to watch again and likely won't need to because some of the images are so gruesome and the context so upsetting that they'll be burned into your memory. Read full review
85
The Daily BeastNick Schager
Provides a remarkable snapshot of the war crimes that—as the daily news reminds us—are still being perpetrated today Read full review
82
TheWrapSteve PondJan 22, 2023
It is not artful. It is urgent and ruthless and horrifying, and it shows the unspeakable. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenOct 6, 2023
20 Days in Mariupol can’t match For Sama for a Hollywood ending. That film sought to cut its bleakness with a whisper of hope – a new baby born in a shelled maternity ward – and a sense that something might, just might, survive the horror. Chernov has nothing as optimistic as that for us, just a fly-on-the-wall account of an unfolding atrocity. And it’s devastating. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearJul 13, 2023
20 Days in Mariupol gives you a sense of life during wartime that isn’t an abstraction, some distant thing happening to people thousands of miles away. The intimate feeling of what it’s like to have your country invaded, your living spaces demolished, and your closest family members killed before your eyes is palpable, and also gut-wrenching. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineTrace SaveurJul 11, 2023
Shot entirely from the perspective of Chernov’s lone camera, 20 Days in Mariupol is a demanding and visceral watch. Read full review
80
Screen DailyAllan HunterJan 22, 2023
Ultimately, Chernov’s film is a compelling record of senseless destruction and death, and a salute to the enduring resilience of a people who refuse to surrender their home. Read full review
80
VarietyDennis HarveyJan 22, 2023
Structured by onscreen markers of the days passed, this nonfiction feature may not have a simple narrative arc, but the director’s unpretentious first-person narration and the intensity of the war-crimes evidence compiled make it riveting nonetheless. Read full review
75
The Film StageAlistair RyderFeb 5, 2024
20 Days in Mariupol is both essential and far from perfect. It can’t be fully, objectively judged when much of the footage within is as urgent as this; it needs to be seen, if only for the vague hope it can help hold the perpetrators’ feet to the fire. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJul 18, 2023
Although the war in Ukraine is still raging, 20 Days in Mariupol is already a historical document. So much has happened in the war in the 14 months since these events, and graphic, front-lines reporting is now ubiquitous. However, Chernov’s team was among the first to document what many say are war crimes by Russian troops, and it provided an early window into the conflict for Western news media. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDerek SmithJan 25, 2023
At its core, 20 Days in Mariupol is a testament to the citizens of Mariupol. Read full review
75
IndieWireAdam SolomonsJan 22, 2023
If 20 Days in Mariupol is about anything, it’s how much destruction can be done in such a short time. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckJan 22, 2023
What comes through most vividly, other than the human tragedy on display, is the vital importance of war correspondents and the courage and ingenuity they must possess in order to work under such life-threatening conditions. Read full review
60
Little White LiesMarina AshiotiOct 5, 2023
What we can do, like these journalists, is bear witness to the pain in the hope that it transforms into an urgent, rallying cry, and address our universal capacity to connect with the pain and suffering of others. Read full review
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