Intercepted

A haunting psychological portrait of invasion, this Berlinale-awarded documentary covertly listens in as Russian troops call home.

Intercepted takes its name from a cache of audio recordings played throughout: phone calls from invading Russian fighters, as captured by Ukrainian security forces. In this documentary, which received Special Mentions for the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the Amnesty International Film Award at Berlin, audiences hear soldiers speaking candidly – unaware of being recorded – to loved ones about life on the ground, and about the horrors of and justifications for war. As their voices continue, images of desolate landscapes and Ukrainians trying to survive are set against ambient compositions in unsettling tableaux.

Director Oksana Karpovych – whose previous film Don’t Worry, the Doors Will Open observed the passengers of a rural commuter train in Ukraine, and who was working for Al Jazeera when the Russian invasion began – has authored a wholly unique study of war and what it does to the mindset of people caught up in its cruelties. Hearing from soldiers desensitised to the realities of conflict has a powerful humanising effect, yet their cold, matter-of-fact words also reveal the deep-rooted influence of nationalist indoctrination.

“Chilling ... [Intercepted] points its microphone unflinchingly at the darkest parts of the human soul, while forcing the viewer to hold the camera and search for the brutality within its images.” – IndieWire