Fighting for Freedom

It’s irresistible, watching people who know that they’re fighting for their lives, that the cause they serve is the most important thing there is, even though the enemy seems all-powerful, and any reasonable guess is that they’re bound to lose. Netflix have had “Winter on Fire”, their documentary about Ukraine, available for a while now, but in the past couple of weeks it’s become almost unbearably topical. Young girls, fed up with being told by old men that they can’t have the country they want; army veterans, watching these kids being beaten up by the police, reckoning they have to help them out with some training in techniques of survival. The odds are impossible, but you can’t just sit there and give up, writing off the chance of fighting for something better, while that window of opportunity is there.

In the film, short-term, they win a kind of victory, but we know now that it isn’t secure, and that they’re currently confronting a much greater threat. The defiance, courage and community spirit are still marvellously impressive, but that doesn’t mean they’ll win. Tahrir Square, Belarus, the brilliant Storyville documentary “President” about elections in Zimbabwe - the evidence is that strong men will do almost anything, spend any amount, break any rules, to hang on to the power they think is their by right. But still, I love it that they’ll stand up for what they believe, and shame the twisted little man who’s determined to crush them.