Intercepted (film)

Last updated
Intercepted
Intercepted poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Oksana Karpovych
Written byOksana Karpovych
Produced byRocío Barba Fuentes
Giacomo Nudi
Edited byCharlotte Tourrès
Distributed byGrasshopper Film (US)
Release date
  • 17 February 2024 (2024-02-17)(Berlin)
Running time
95 minutes
CountriesCanada
France
Ukraine
LanguagesUkrainian
Russian

Intercepted is a 2024 Ukrainian-Canadian-French documentary film that merges the intercepted phone calls of Russian soldiers in Ukraine with their families back home with images of the destruction caused by the invasion. [1] [2] The film is written and directed by Oksana Karpovych.

Contents

Synopsis

The film vividly portrays the devastating aftermath of war: shattered homes, demolished bridges, and charred machinery.

The static visuals are accompanied by audio recordings of intercepted phone calls between Russian soldiers and their families, captured by Ukrainian intelligence since the start of the full-scale invasion and regularly published online. In these calls, the soldiers discuss Russia's military ambitions, brag about their victories, boast about the trophies they plan to take home, and share their worries and fears about the direction the invasion is taking. Some admit to having tortured and killed people, including civilians.

Production

The film took approximately two years to complete. Filming began in 2022 and wrapped up in 2024, with footage captured in Donbas, as well as the Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv regions.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 100% of 12 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. [3] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [4]

Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "It's easy to write off combatants as just an enemy but Karpovych's film tries to understand them, how and why they've justifying killing civilians on sight, enacting horrifying amounts of torture, or why they're invading Ukraine's borders in the first place. And while the voices of Ukrainians are not featured in Intercepted, their resilience dominates the frame of Karpovych's observational documentary." [5]

The film won the Grand Prize for National Feature at the 2024 Montreal International Documentary Festival. [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>No Mans Land</i> (2001 film) 2001 film by Danis Tanović

No Man's Land is a 2001 war film that is set in the midst of the Bosnian War. The film is a parable and marks the debut of Bosnian writer and director Danis Tanović. It is a co-production among companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Italy, France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. The film first premiered on 19 September 2001 in France. It later won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002.

<i>Spy Game</i> 2001 action thriller film directed by Tony Scott

Spy Game is a 2001 action thriller film directed by Tony Scott and starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. The American–French–German–Japanese co-production grossed $62 million in the United States and $143 million worldwide on a $115 million budget and received mostly positive reviews from film critics.

<i>The Peacemaker</i> (1997 film) 1997 American political action thriller film by Mimi Leder

The Peacemaker is a 1997 American political action thriller film starring George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Marcel Iureș and Aleksandr Baluev and directed by Mimi Leder. It is the first film by DreamWorks Pictures. While the story takes place all over the world, it was shot primarily in Slovakia with some sequences filmed in New York City and Philadelphia.

<i>Army of Shadows</i> 1969 film by Jean-Pierre Melville

Army of Shadows is a 1969 Franco-Italian World War II suspense-drama film written and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, and starring Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Simone Signoret. It is an adaptation of Joseph Kessel's 1943 book of the same name, which mixes Kessel's experiences as a member of the French Resistance with fictional versions of other Resistance members.

<i>Rendition</i> (film) 2007 American film

Rendition is a 2007 American political thriller film directed by Gavin Hood, and starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin and Omar Metwally. It centers on the controversial CIA practice of extraordinary rendition and is based on the true story of Khalid El-Masri, who was mistaken for Khalid al-Masri.

<i>Overlord</i> (1975 film) 1975 British film

Overlord is a 1975 black-and-white British war film written and directed by Stuart Cooper. Set during the Second World War, around the D-Day invasion, the film is about a young British soldier's experiences and his meditations on being part of the war machinery, including his premonitions of death. The film won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize at the 25th Berlin International Film Festival. “Overlord is not about military heroics; on the contrary, it is about the bleakness of sacrifice”, Cooper said.

<i>The Battle of Algiers</i> 1966 Italian-Algerian war film

The Battle of Algiers is a 1966 Italian-Algerian war film co-written and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. It is based on action undertaken by rebels during the Algerian War (1954–1962) against the French government in North Africa, the most prominent being the eponymous Battle of Algiers, the capital of Algeria. It was shot on location in a Roberto Rossellini-inspired newsreel style: in black and white with documentary-type editing to add to its sense of historical authenticity, with mostly non-professional actors who had lived through the real battle. The film's score was composed by Pontecorvo and Ennio Morricone. It is often associated with Italian neorealist cinema.

<i>Taxi to the Dark Side</i> 2007 documentary film by Alex Gibney

Taxi to the Dark Side is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Alex Gibney, and produced by Gibney, Eva Orner, and Susannah Shipman. It won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It focuses on the December 2002 killing of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar, who was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extrajudicial detention and interrogated at a black site at Bagram air base.

<i>No End in Sight</i> 2007 American film

No End in Sight is a 2007 American documentary film about the American occupation of Iraq. The directorial debut of Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Charles Ferguson, it premiered on January 22, 2007, at the Sundance Film Festival and opened in its first two theaters in the United States on July 27, 2007. By December of that year, it had a theatrical gross of $1.4 million. The film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 80th Academy Awards.

<i>Encounters at the End of the World</i> 2007 American documentary film by Werner Herzog

Encounters at the End of the World is a 2007 American documentary film by Werner Herzog about Antarctica and the people who choose to spend time there. It was released in North America on June 11, 2008, and distributed by ThinkFilm. At the 81st Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature.

<i>Restrepo</i> (film) 2010 documentary film

Restrepo is a 2010 American documentary film about the War in Afghanistan directed by British photojournalist Tim Hetherington and American journalist Sebastian Junger. It explores the year that Junger and Hetherington spent, on assignment for Vanity Fair, in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, embedded with the Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army. The Second Platoon is depicted defending the outpost (OP) named after a platoon medic who was killed earlier in the campaign, PFC Juan Sebastián Restrepo, who was a Colombian-born naturalized U.S. citizen. The directors stated that the film is not a war advocacy documentary, they simply "wanted to capture the reality of the soldiers."

<i>Life Itself</i> (2014 film) 2014 American film

Life Itself is a 2014 American biographical documentary film about Chicago film critic Roger Ebert, directed by Steve James and produced by Zak Piper, James and Garrett Basch. The film is based on Ebert's 2011 memoir of the same name. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was an official selection at the 67th Cannes Film Festival. The 41st Telluride Film Festival hosted a special screening of the film on August 28, 2014. Magnolia Pictures released the film theatrically in the United States and simultaneously via video on demand platforms on July 4, 2014.

<i>Atlantis</i> (2019 film) 2019 film

Atlantis is a 2019 Ukrainian dystopian post-apocalyptic film directed by Valentyn Vasyanovych. It tells the story of a former soldier struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder in a near-future Ukraine, following a war with Russia.

<i>The Blazing World</i> (film) 2021 film by Carlson Young

The Blazing World is a 2021 American fantasy horror-thriller film written and directed by Carlson Young and co-written by Pierce Brown. The film stars Udo Kier, Dermot Mulroney, Vinessa Shaw, Soko, John Karna, Young and Edith González in her final film role before her death in 2019. The film is loosely inspired by Margaret Cavendish's 1666 work of the same name. In 2018, Young wrote, directed and starred in the short film of the same name, prior to expanding the basis and ideas for the full-length film. It is the first in a planned trilogy of films entitled Saturn Returns.

<i>Invasion</i> (2021 TV series) American science fiction television series

Invasion is an American science fiction television series created by Simon Kinberg and David Weil that premiered on Apple TV+ on October 22, 2021. It is shown in English, Japanese, and Pashto. It has received a mixed critical response, praising the acting, music and pacing, but criticizing the underuse of the aliens. In Germany the show is called Infiltration. It was renewed for a second season in December 2021, which premiered on August 23, 2023. It was renewed for a third season in February 2024.

<i>Babi Yar. Context</i> 2021 Ukrainian documentary film

Babi Yar. Context, also known as Babyn Yar. Context, is a 2021 documentary film by the Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa that explores the prelude and aftermath of the World War II massacre of nearly 34,000 Jews at Babi Yar in Kyiv, Ukraine in September 1941.

<i>"Sr."</i> 2022 American film

"Sr." is a 2022 American documentary film that examines the careers and relationship between Robert Downey Jr. and his father, Robert Downey Sr. The film, directed by Chris Smith, was released theatrically on November 18, 2022, and was released on Netflix on December 2.

<i>Retrograde</i> (2022 American film) 2022 documentary film by Matthew Heineman

Retrograde is a 2022 American documentary film directed by Matthew Heineman that covers events that took place during the final nine months of America's 20-year war in Afghanistan. It had its U.S. premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 3, 2022, and had its Canadian debut at the Vancouver International Film Festival on October 2, 2022. It was released in select theaters in the United States starting November 11, 2022, by National Geographic Documentary Films and Picturehouse and was later made available on various streaming platforms.

<i>Superpower</i> (film) 2023 documentary film

Superpower is a 2023 documentary film co-directed by Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman. It premiered at Berlinale on 17 February 2023. The film profiles Volodymyr Zelenskyy's atypical career path through the eyes of Sean Penn as he seeks to understand Ukraine's recent history. Beginning in late 2021, Penn visited Ukraine several times during the film's production. The film is produced by Vice Studios.

Oksana Karpovych is a Ukrainian documentary film director, most noted for her 2024 film Intercepted.

References

  1. Dargis, Manohla (3 October 2024). "'Intercepted' Review: The Awful Intimacy of the War in Ukraine". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 October 2024. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  2. Smith, Kyle (3 October 2024). "'Intercepted' Review: Eavesdropping on Evil in the Ukraine War". wsj.com.
  3. "Intercepted". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 3 December 2024.
  4. "Intercepted". Metacritic . Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  5. Castillo, Monica (October 2024). "Intercepted". RogerEbert.com . Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  6. Pat Mullen, "Intercepted and Republic Top RIDM Winners". Point of View , December 1, 2024.