Freedom on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

Freedom on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom is a 2022 Ukrainian-British-American documentary film written and directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. It premiered out of competition at the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival.

Plot
The film chronicles the early stages of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, from the point of view of Ukrainian ordinary citizens.

Release
The film had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival. It was later screened at various festivals, including the 47th Toronto Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival DocFest (USA), SCAD Savannah Film Festival(USA), DOCNYC, Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival,  the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival, the Stockholm International Film Festival. Budapest International Documentary Festival (Hungary), Festival Internacional de Cinema Independente de Braga - Bragacine (Portugal), Movies on War Film Festival (Norway), Eastern Neighbors Film Festival (Netherlands), Cinema for Peace Awards (Germany), Ukraina Festiwal Filmowy (Poland), The Dublin International Film Festival (Ireland), Human Rights Watch Film Festival(Canada), Cleveland International Film Festival, The Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival (USA), International Festival of Historical Films "Beyond Time" (Ukraine / Kyiv), European Film Festival of Atlanta (USA).

Reception
The film was generally praised by critics. Screen International critic Jonathan Romney described it as "a film that deserves to be widely seen, and as soon as possible". According to Los Angeles Times critic Robert Abele, the film is a "pulsating jumble of hearts and minds making do amid war and wreckage". According to TheWrap review, "the film is less a catalogue of horrors than a tribute to the people who look for strength despite those horrors; it continually finds moments of grace, humanity and even beauty that seem almost unfathomable in these circumstances."

2023 version
In February 2023, Evgeny Afineevsky and his Ukrainian team presented a newly edited and updated comprehensive version of the movie, outlining all 9 years of the war (2014 - 2023) and one full year of the full-scale invasion (February 2022 - February 2023). The new version had a lot new and never scene footage and new interviews. Despite the raging war in Ukraine, on February 22, 2023 Ukraine's Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and its minister Oleksandr Tkachenko, together with Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and 1+1 Media hosted the world premiere of the newly created movie in the heart of the Ukraine's capital - Kyiv. Two days later, on February 24, 2023, Pope Francis together with the director Evgeny Afineevsky] hosted the European premiere of the new version of the film in Vatican City.