The Rule of Two Walls: Documenting Artists in Ukraine

If you think all Millennials and Gen Z’ers are annoying, you haven’t met Ukrainian Millennials and Gen Z’ers. There is nothing frivolous about them and none of them have time to whine about micro-aggressions. They are too busy worrying about the exploding macro-aggressions Russia keeps launching at them. Ukrainian-American filmmaker David Gutnik captures the lives of Ukrainian artists working under Russian bombardment, several of whom also served as crew on the documentary in which they are subjects, The Rule of Two Walls. It opens this Friday in New York.

Although Rule of Two Walls is not nearly as harrowing and horrific as Mstyslav Chernov’s extraordinarily important 20 Days in Mariupol, you will still see bodies burned to a crisp by Putin bombing campaign. To put it more precisely, Gutnik is compelled to record the brave Ukrainian journalists who are compelled to record the truth of this particular war crime.

For most of the film, Gutnik turns his lens on Ukrainian filmmakers, hardcore metal musicians, painters, and gallerists. Ordinarily, they would be the hippest of the hippest. However, since Putin’s full invasion, they have consciously embraced traditional Ukrainian culture as another form of deliberate resistance.

That even includes Ukrainian religious traditions, even though some still cannot quite call themselves believers. Regardless, the agnostic have always been the minority in the devoutly Christian nation. In fact, Gutnik records a tellingly ironic riff on the old adage about “no atheists in fox-holes.” Would an atheist even be in a fox-hole in the first place they wonder, because that kind of commitment requires a belief in something.

Rule of Two Walls stimulates further thought and provokes genuine outrage. It offers yet another valuable perspective on Putin’s continuing war crimes. It also makes it clear how profoundly Putin and his followers misjudged Ukrainian unity and resolve. They more his Z-thugs try to erase Ukrainian identity, the more the Ukrainian people re-assert it.

Indeed, watching Rule of Two Walls, it is clear the only way this war will ever truly end is with a complete Ukrainian victory and a complete Russian withdrawal. Consequently, those in Congress using the disingenuous term “forever war” to justify opposition to Ukrainian military aid are in fact the ones who are prolonging the war.

Nevertheless, Rule of Two Walls should neither be the first or last documentary viewers watch covering the war in Ukraine. Again, 20 Days in Mariupol is a fair place to start. However, Rule of Two Walls is an excellent film that nicely supplements other such documentaries, including Eastern Front and Intercepted. Gutnik starts with a staged “hybrid vignette” that is unnecessary and confusing, but the scale and significance of the truths he later documents need to be seen and spread further. Highly recommended, The Rule of Two Walls opens this Friday (8/16) in New York at DCTV Firehouse.