David Farnor | On 09, Sep 2015

Netflix has released the trailer for new Ukrainian documentary Winter on Fire.

Chronicling events that unfolded over 93 days in 2013 and 2014, Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky, witnesses the formation of a civil rights movement in Ukraine.

What started as peaceful student demonstrations supporting European integration morphed into a full-fledged violent revolution calling for the resignation of the nation’s president.

The film captures the mobilisation of nearly a million citizens from across the country protesting the corrupt political regime that utilised extreme force against its own people.

Afineevsky’s team were originally there to record the special forces deployed to disperse the crowds. Through interviews with protesters, activists, journalists, medical workers and clergy, the movie follows the self-organised movement to achieve one common goal.

Winter on Fire joins a long line of Netflix original documentaries, as the streaming company embraces non-fiction films as both a unique offering and a chance to compete for awards: two of its documentaries, Virunga and The Square, have already been nominated for Oscars. Winter on Fire received its premiere at the Venice Film Festival this month and follows the premiere of Netflix’s original documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? at Sundance this year.

Coming later this month is a documentary about Keith Richards and, further down the line, Netflix has also ordered a new nature series from the team behind the BBC’s Planet Earth series, titled Our Planet.

Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom will be released globally on Netflix on Friday 9th October. Here’s the trailer:

Photo: Courtesy of Netflix Inc.

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