“Babi Yar. Context” reconstructs the historical context of this tragedy through archive footage documenting the German occupation of Ukraine and the subsequent decade. When memory turns into oblivion, when the past overshadows the future, it is the voice of cinema that articulates the truth.
Now here’s a documentary – removing the typical narrator or historical experts as subjects – that lets the footage speak for itself. Writer/Director Sergei Loznilsa seamlessly blends archival footage – shot by both German and Soviet troops – resulting in one of the most vivid accounts of the Eastern Front ever captured.
Loznilsa opens with bombs being dropped on a small Ukrainian village, confusing the citizens. On Sunday, June 22, 1941, the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa – a surprise attack aimed to destroy the Soviet Union. That September in Soviet Ukraine, the Nazis carried out one of the worst massacres of the entire bloody World War II European theatre. Led by the Sonderkommando with help of Ukrainian police and military they killed: 33,741 Jews, Ukrainians, Russians, Artists, and Disabled people over the course of three days.
After bombs are dropped on a bridge, aerial footage captures Nazi troops riding in loud diesel-powered Panzer tanks, rumbling motorcycles, and other machines of death as they begin to occupy the town. The main street now holds up a banner celebrating Hitler. The footage occasionally switches to color, giving further detail to the ensuing destruction of the numerous towns. Soviet troops captured as POWs trudge along in single file, there are corpses of civilians and soldiers lining different points of their path; the early days of the Eastern Front were devastating, and disappointingly, is rarely discussed in Western history.
Next, the Nazis sacked Lviv. As crying women clean the debris from their dead loved ones with brooms, fellow Jews that became Kapos – or nazi collaborators that embraced fascism – beat their fellow people to clear the bodies, in a tragic scene. More towns are raided using flamethrowers to set farmhouses with thatched roofs on fire. Kiev looks covered in snow with all the smoke from its opulent burning buildings produces a lasting image.
The documentary’s chronicling of the deadly campaign from Poland to Ukraine – leading up to the Babi Yar Massacre – adds to the dramatic heft; showcases how occupied villages and cities became Nazi loyalists. Another scene following shows the forcible recruitment of Ukrainian POWs freed, briefly greeted by their wives, now told they must serve the Third Reich.
The War on the Eastern Front began to take a turn when in 1943, Soviet troops reclaimed Kiev. After word got around of a massacre, many people, including American journalists, traveled to the site of the Babi Yar Massacre. In an attempt to cover their war crimes, the German troops forced citizens to dig up the bodies and burn them.
In a fantastically lit courtroom, testimonials are given by various survivors and an SS officer who killed 120 people during those three days. One witness tells of how she, along with some brave Ukrainians and Russians, accompanied the victims and had to wait there until the day’s slaughter was finished. Then one of the commanders realized if word got out no more people would be fooled into the deadly trap, so they decided to execute all the non-Jews who were witnesses. Every statement is harrowing. An unbroken take showing the public execution of ten nazi commanders is intense but appropriate for the unflinching footage.
After WWII Americans recruited Nazi scientists and commanders – the former helped develop the rocket program during the Cold War, and the latter were placed in the high-ranking German bureaucratic positions – simply to keep American interests protected in western Germany against the Soviet Union. Currently, Ukraine has statues and roads dedicated to Nazis, their NATO troops have been pictured wearing SS insignias, and neo-nazi organizations are common. This documentary – revisiting the past with a refined eye – has me wondering, did fascism ultimately win?
Official Selection of the 2021 Festival de Cannes
