As reported by Variety, Evgeny Afineevsky, Israeli producer, film director, actor, screenplay writer and the president of New Generation Films (Hollywood, USA), is currently working on a documentary named Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom for Netflix, an American rental platform which hosts online streaming movies and series for more than 60 million clients.
The documentary is set to premiere on October 9, and it will be available all over the world.
The movie will follow 93 days of unrest in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014 – the time when student demonstration in support of the European integration transformed into a violent revolution which strived to remove president Yanukovych from power.
Netflix is honored to air a movie on Ukrainian Euromaidan. “Evgeny has assembled a cinematic tribute to the heroism, spirit and determination of the Ukrainian people,” said Lisa Nishimura, Netflix vice-president of Original Documentary Programming. “We are honoured to provide a global platform for him to share his powerful narrative.”
In making of the movie, Afineevsky and his team have interviewed the protesters, activists, medics, artists, and clerics. The respondents were from diverse backgrounds, ages, and nationalities; the film even features a 12-year-old volunteer. Winter on Fire documents the struggle of Ukrainian protesters, who had held their positions despite the shedding of blood, despair, and all the hardships.
“While we were filming unfathomably brutal attacks by the police on unarmed citizens, we weren’t thinking about how to get the best shots, only the importance of showing the ways in which the movement would forever change the country and the lives of its participants,” Afineevsky said.
The documentary is endorsed by Netflix and created by Evgeny Afineevsky, Den Tolmor, UkrStream.TV, and SPN Productions in association with Passion Pictures, Campbell Grobman Films and Rock Paper Scissors Entertainment. Its executive producers are: John Battsek, Lati Grobman, Christa Campbell, Lisa Nishimura, Adam Del Deo, Angus Wall, David Dinerstein, Andrew Ruhemann, Dennis L. Kogod, Nadine Khapsalis Kogod, and a Ukrainian Bohdan Batrukh.
Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom is the third Afineevsky’s documentary, reports i-pro.kiev.ua. As a producer, he participated in the 2002 Crime and Punishment adaptation, featuring Vanessa Redgrave, John Hurt, and Margot Kidder. His directorial debut has been a 2009 movie Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!
Documentaries are a constant part of Netflix’s original program. So far, Netflix has no plans to run Winter on Fire for movie theaters – and that means that the film will not be considered as an Oscar candidate – but the plans can still change.
