The director of the film "20 Days in Mariupol" explained why we should not condemn Marianna Vyshemyrska, a woman in labor who supported Putin.

Ukrainian videographer, photographer, and war correspondent Mstyslav Chernov is the author of a photo of pregnant Marianna Vyshemyrska from a maternity hospital in blockaded Mariupol that was bombed by the occupiers. The image of a woman in labor with a bloody face went viral and shocked the whole world, becoming one of the proofs of war crimes committed by the Russian army. Meanwhile, Marianna herself moved to Moscow, where she became a collaborator who agitates Russians to vote for dictator Vladimir Putin in the 2024 presidential "elections."

The director of this year's Oscar-nominated documentary 20 Days in Mariupol is in no hurry to condemn Marianna. He believes that everyone has the right to make their own choice. Chernov shared his thoughts on the matter in an interview with the BBC.

The videographer is convinced that one cannot draw any conclusions without knowing all the circumstances in a person's life. At the same time, he is aware that the attack on the maternity hospital in Mariupol is a war crime of the Russian Federation, which has not yet been confirmed, as it requires, among other things, an investigation of the site of the terror and interviews with witnesses. Marianna, it turns out, is also one of the witnesses.

"I don't know the circumstances of her life, I don't know what's going on in her life. And I believe that everyone has the right to their own opinion. It is important to understand that when we talk, for example, about the bombing of the Mariupol maternity hospital, we are talking about potential war crimes. That is why we need to work not only with witnesses, but also with a set of evidence: expert testimony, witnesses, photos, videos, and satellite images. That is, it is a complex process. And you need to have access to the crime scene. Therefore, it is necessary to separate private opinions, to which everyone has the right, and the investigation of war crimes, which are procedural matters," Chernov said.

The director also said that he still keeps in touch with some residents of Mariupol who, for various reasons, remained under occupation. He explained that there are also pro-Ukrainian citizens who remain there.

"We are talking to people who still live in Mariupol. These are people with different circumstances. People who did not want the only home they had to be taken away from them, and it miraculously survived. They didn't want the Russians to take it away, so they stayed there. People who stayed there because they care about their elderly parents who don't want to leave. You know that elderly people can't usually leave their homes. Some of these people didn't give up their Ukrainian passports, they didn't take a Russian passport, and because of this they have big problems - they can't leave Mariupol: they are stopped at checkpoints, sentenced to 15 days, and then sent back to Mariupol. That is, they actually live in a ghetto," the director said.

As we previously reported, the film 20 Days in Mariupol by director and videographer Mstislav Chernov has officially been nominated for the prestigious Oscar 2024 in the Best Feature Documentary category. It will compete with 4 other films for the coveted statuette.