The never-before-told story of Welsh reporter Gareth Jones, directed by the iconic Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, premiered in Ukraine back in late 2019.
Mr. Jones is a film about the construction of the Stalin regime. Twisting facts, pushing propaganda, and suppressing the truth through terror campaigns – not much has changed since the 1930s. We see very similar policies today in Putin's Russia. The progeny of that totalitarian government continues to massacre Ukrainians and lie brazenly, hiding the truth behind the white noise of outrageous claims. But the world knows whose side the truth is on, and the price of the truth is life.
On February 24, 2022, Russia has begun what can only be described as a Genocide of the Ukrainian people – killing civilians, bombing residential buildings and critical infrastructure, and inflicting humanitarian catastrophes in major population centers. But it is not the first attempt. The last time they tried it in the 1930s, by creating an artificial famine in our freedom-loving country. Stalin's henchmen tried to conceal the truth while gradually exterminating millions of Ukrainians. But the truth prevailed, and the world found out about it. We are indebted to the heroes who, like Gareth Jones, do everything to ensure that the crimes of Putin's Russia do not go unseen and unpunished.
We would like to wholeheartedly thank our colleagues in the film industry for their support in these darkest of times. Director Agnieszka Holland and actor James Norton, who starred in the film, with help from the Kyiv Independent, held an online charity event to support Ukraine. We believe that very soon, we will have an opportunity to express our gratitude in person, in a free and blossoming Ukraine.
You can see this historical thriller now on the official FILM.UA YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/VjlSDlqWiFw
*ПОСИЛАННЯ*
FYI
In 1933, Welsh reporter Gareth Jones was looking for his next big story. The job assignment brings him to Moscow, where he meets American journalist Ada Brooks, who reveals to him the truth about the “Soviet utopia” and Jones starts to put all the pieces together.
Hiding from the Soviet intelligence agencies and facing deadly threats, bit by bit he uncovers the truth about the tragedy of the Ukrainian people: the Holodomor, censorship, conspiracies, and mass repressions. Later, Gareth's work finds a home as the basis of the scathing allegory Animal Farm by George Orwell.
