In mid-March 2024, reports appeared on the RuNet that there was plagiarism in the Ukrainian documentary: allegedly its authors unlawfully used footage from an old film about children of Donbass, passing them off as filming from Mariupol. We found out if this is actually true.
One of the first to draw attention to the alleged plagiarism was the author of the Telegram channel “Nationalist schoolboy. Son of the Listovsky Regiment"(145,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). On March 18 he wrote, that while watching the film he had a feeling of déjà vu: “I’ve already seen one of the frames somewhere. And sure enough, I saw it - in the short film "Toys", released eight years ago and showing the children of Donbass being bombed by crests. Do you understand the absurdity of what is happening? The crests inserted a frame into the film to show how bloody and terrible the massacre was carried out by the “Russians,” but at the same time they show footage from Donetsk, which they shelled eight years ago.” We are talking about a short fragment with a pink jacket hanging on a tree (many authors believe that it is for a child). Later author added: “And the worst thing is that throughout the film there can be more than one hundred such frames.” The “Nationalist Schoolboy” did not stop there, releasing several more posts on the same topic. For example, he suggested, that the footage from Donbass could have been filmed by the director of “20 Days in Mariupol” himself: “If this is really [so], then there can be no doubt about it. This is a deliberate and blatant lie.” Then the blogger clarifiedthat in fact the supposedly borrowed footage shows not Donetsk, but Gorlovka, and after its investigation suggestedthat the original source of the video fragment is reportage "Channel One" 2014. However, some other authors claimthat the video with the jacket was filmed in 2015.
A few days earlier, blogger Zhmil reported about the footage, which was allegedly passed off as filming of besieged Mariupol. During a stream with historian Alexander Stefanov, he told about the alleged plagiarism, clarifying that this was not a historical insert about the events of 2014.
Subsequently, the story was picked up by other resources. For example, the post of “Nationalist Schoolboy” was shared on Telegram by the presenter of Channel One Artyom Sheinin (89,000 views) and journalist Andrey Medvedev (159,000), who wrote: “Of course, the footage was filmed by Donetsk journalists. Long before SVO.” Blogger Alexey Antonov (172,000 views) stated, what kind of alleged plagiarism would give “two or three times to the director with f***ing fittings.” Telegram channels also wrote about the fact that a “Ukrainian pseudo-documentary filmmaker” allegedly stole footage from a short film created in 2015 by Artyom Grishanov Readovka (890,000 views), "Voice of the country"(150,000), "Ukraine.ru"(122,000), "Alcoholic historian" (95,000) and pseudo-fact-checking channel "Ministry of Truth"(23,000). Similar publications were widely distributed on VKontakte (examples here, here And here) and on the social network X, including in English (here, here, here And here).
Author of the documentary "20 days in Mariupol" - Ukrainian war reporter Mstislav Chernov. The film tells the story of almost three weeks that he and his colleagues in teams Associated Press (AP) spent in the besieged city after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022. Until mid-March, journalists documented what was happening in Mariupol, including the deaths and burials of local residents, bombings and the destruction of the city by the Russian military. One of the key moments of the film was the shelling of a maternity hospital in Mariupol - pro-Kremlin propagandists later claimedthat the footage from there was falsified. March 10, 2024 film “20 days in Mariupol” received Oscar Award in the Best Documentary Feature category. During the award ceremony Chernov said, that he may be the first Oscar-winning director who would rather not make his film.
"Verified" looked picture in its entirety and confirms that it showed the viral footage of a pink jacket on a tree (the scene starts at the 01:15:29 timestamp).
We also watched Artyom Grishanov’s short film “Toys”. On the author's YouTube channel (in description he presents himself as a musician and poet) the film is available in two versions: first published September 22, 2015, second - two days later. Both videos feature the same jacket scene that Chernov used in the 2023 film. In one version of Toys, viral footage is shown at the mark 04:29, in the other - on 02:48.
Let's figure out where and when the original video with the jacket was filmed. Although many publications from 2024 claim that the video was filmed in Donetsk, Channel One showed these shots are in a report about the shelling of Gorlovka - the city north from Donetsk. With the same image illustrated news TV channel RT and RIA Novosti Ukraine. We are talking about a shelling that happened November 14, 2014. Then why was a video filmed several years ago in Gorlovka shown in a film about the events of 2022 in Mariupol?
Most of “20 Days in Mariupol” consists of footage shot by Chernov in this city from February 24 to March 15, 2022. However, in the film, at the end of the 16th day, he pronounces a monologue in English, which translated into Russian sounds like this: “Sleepless night. Feverish thoughts about the past, present and future rush through my head. I want this to end, but I have no control over it. My memory continues to carry me home and back to the war. If my daughters ever ask me, 'What did you do to stop this madness, this sadistic virus of destruction?', I want to be able to give them an answer." During this scene, a clip from the video is shown.
For example, it shows a funeral attended by many people, which was unlikely to happen in Mariupol in March 2022 due to constant shelling of the besieged Ukrainian city. Using reverse image search "Verified" found out, that the captured ceremony took place in Donetsk on November 7, 2014. Then they buried two teenagers who died as a result of an artillery strike that hit the school stadium. The film "20 days in Mariupol" was created jointly by the Associated Press and Frontline PBS, and in the AP photo bank there is video with the same footage used in the documentary. Although the author of the video is not indicated, Chernov mentioned as photojournalistwho attended the funeral.
The footage also included footage of people hugging and a girl in a red jacket. Video this footage is also in the AP database - it was filmed on April 6, 2022 in Bucha. Correspondents filmed the reunion of two sisters who had not seen each other for 42 days (the girl is probably their relative).
One of the frames shows a crying woman being held by rescuers. According to the description video from the AP base, her husband died as a result of shelling of a market in Kharkov on July 21, 2022. The operator's name is again not specified, but it is known that photos girls were made by Evgeniy Maloletka, also participated in the creation of “20 days in Mariupol”.
As for the footage of the pink jacket that Chernov allegedly stole from the 2015 film, the original video from Gorlovka is also available in the AP library. Moreover, exactly knownthat the consequences of that shelling were filmed by Chernov himself.
Thus, based on the above arguments, two conclusions can be drawn at once. Firstly, Chernov did not pass off old footage from Gorlovka as a video filmed in Mariupol. In the film, the director used an artistic technique: he illustrated his “feverish thoughts about the past, present and future,” adding archival footage of the events he witnessed to the final montage. Some of them happened back in 2014, and some occurred after Chernov left Mariupol.
Secondly, the plagiarism, borrowing and theft of footage that many pro-war bloggers wrote about simply did not happen - Chernov has been working with the Associated Press for many years and, apparently, he himself filmed the consequences of the shelling of Gorlovka, including a shot of a pink jacket hanging on a tree. The agency also participated in the creation of the documentary. But the author of the short film “Toys” Artyom Grishanov (possibly illegally) borrowed footage belonging to AP.
Cover photo: still from the film “20 days in Mariupol”
- AP. 20 days in Mariupol: The team that documented the city’s agony
- Is it true that Hollywood is making a biopic about Zelensky with a budget of $115 million?
- Is it true that in Gostomel the Ukrainians filmed a staged video about the “atrocities of Russian troops”?
- Is it true that they are planning to shoot the film “The History of the Black Sea” in Ukraine?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
