RULE OF TWO WALLS Trailer: Award-Winning Documentary Highlights the Perseverance of Artists in Ukraine

The ongoing War in Ukraine is captured up close and personal through the eyes of its artists who remain in David Gutnik’s documentary Rule of Two Walls, which premiered at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Mention for human rights and artistic expression. The Ukrainian-American Gutnik directs, writes, and edits the documentary while fellow Ukranian Liev Schreiber is on board as an executive producer. After a lengthy worldwide festival run, it will open from Monument Releasing at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema in New York on Friday, August 16, 2024, before expanding to select cities.

In its review from Tribeca, HtN wrote “While Rule of Two Walls can be a tough watch at times, it is a necessary one that shows first-hand how everyday Ukrainians have been dealing with the terror and violence that has reigned upon their home. However, it does not capture the people in the shadows of despair, but rather in a light of solidarity in which they try to inspire and hold onto hope for the future of both their country and culture. The various perspectives of all these defiant artists (Gutnik included) open our eyes to a bigger picture than we may have originally thought before walking into the film. The film is a breathtaking testament to how turmoil can inspire fighting through creativity, and not with violence and brutality. David Gutnik is a filmmaker on the rise whose empathy and boldness have no bounds. A captivating piece of filmmaking that is as resistant and hopeful as Ukraine’s people.”

As the official synopsis reads:

RULE OF TWO WALLS is an intimate look at the war in Ukraine, as seen through the eyes of Ukrainian artists who remain in their country to make art as a defiant act in the face of aggression. Using live music performance, painting, street art, and the act of filmmaking itself, it illuminates the war’s psychological frontlines: how to go to a restaurant or bar amid the near-constant blare of air-raid alarms and missile strikes; how to process, react and resist, while having to go about the rhythms of daily life. Blurring the lines between what is seen in front of and behind the camera, the film probes what it means to make cinema in a time of war.

See the trailer and poster below.

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