Disclaimer: I’m a blind film critic. I did find this with audio description done by the Media Access Group.

Ukraine’s submission to the 2026 Oscars this year, which is currently on the shortlist for Documentary feature and International Feature, premiered at the 2025 Sundance film festival, before later appearing on Frontline on PBS. A similar strategy for the last Ukrainian war documentary 20 Days In Mariupol, which won the Oscar for Documentary feature just two years ago.

2000 Meters to Andriivka is a visceral experience, and one of the most difficult watches of the year.20 Days In Mariupol focused on the horrors of war on average Ukrainians and children, and this one follows soldiers right to the front lines of battle as they strive to reclaim the town Andriivka, which the Russians have stolen and illegally occupied. war is hell, and it is even more so when war is brought to your doorstep, something we don’t get a lot of these days. Our American war documentaries are almost always footage of us in another country fighting against evil. We forget what it is like to push insurgents out of your own country.

Director Mastyslav Chernov puts cameras on the helmets of soldiers and joins a battalion as they push through 2000 meters of forest to reach Andriivka, and reclaim it for Ukraine. Along the way, gunfire is exchanged, men are hit, and even those not killed in duty for this battle, are mentioned as having been shot or lost in a mission since. War is hell, and what do you do when hell is forced upon you?

There’s a great scene here where one of the soldiers says he doesn’t like to use the term “serve” his country, because he’s not a soldier. He’s fighting for his country, as it has been invaded, but otherwise had no plans to join the armed forces. It is impossible to watch this and listen to the audacity of asking Ukraine to find peace by ceding the land so hard fought over, which was taken from them. Men are dying to repel invaders from their land, and why on earth would you tell them to just give up?

The audio description track here is one of my least favorite from media Access Group, if I’m being honest. It utilizes two narrators, one female sounding voice for primary narration, and another for subtitle translation. I believe the translation was all spoken by Peter jaycock (my guess), who works a lot with media Access on cbS shows and Taylor Sheridan productions. He’s got a great voice, but he’s not the guy for this job. he just blandly reads the spoken text, which can be a problem when people are having conversations. One such conversation between the Ukrainian troops and Russian, is particularly rough to navigate. he makes no alteration in his voice. if he needed to read a bedtime story to your kid, your kid would hate you because he doesn’t do all the voices. Performative audio description gets a bad rap, but at least you can tell the difference between people. Here, he might as well have just been AI. And that sucks, because normally he’s fantastic. Now I know, translation is not his strong suit.

There’s nothing more to really say here that hasn’t been said. This is a tremendous, guttural experience that reminds you sovereignty is worth fighting for. more than democracy or peace, being able to repel transient forces from your land is of immediate necessity. 2000 Meters never felt more important.

Fresh: 9.4/10