Scottish premiere; Nominee for Berlinale Documentary Award, 2024; Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema - 2024 Nominee for Best Film in International competition; Krakow Film festival - 2024 Nominee Golden Horn Best international Documentary
Wheelchair accessible, English subtitles, SDH subtitles (Closed Captions), Pay-what-you-can tickets (£2-£8)
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Oksana Karpovych’s Intercepted offers a chilling exploration of the russian invasion of Ukraine by juxtaposing everyday scenes of Ukrainian resilience with intercepted phone calls from russian soldiers on the frontlines. These recorded conversations, made public by the Ukrainian Secret Service, expose the deeply unsettling banality of evil, as soldiers recount their experiences of war. The soldiers’ emotional outbursts alternate between pride, confusion, and despair, while their families’ responses range from concern to blind parroting of state propaganda.
Karpovych skillfully contrasts these disturbing conversations with images of Ukraine ravaged by destruction yet still striving to rebuild. Bombed-out homes and roads serve as visceral traces of the war’s heavy toll, but amidst the rubble, life persists. Daily routines resume, embodying a powerful resistance.
By letting the dissonance between what is heard and seen unfold gradually, Intercepted captures both the devastation of Ukraine and the distorted reality of russian soldiers fighting in war they often struggle to comprehend themselves. The film is a stark reminder of the whole scope of the dehumanising power of war and imperialist nature of the russian aggression.
Content notes: discussions of war and violence, verbal descriptions of severe violence and torture, verbal descriptions of sexual assault, offensive language and ethnic slurs
Curated by Natalia Guzevataya
Trailer
