Piecing together the sequence of events leading up to the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, then on to and the investigation afterward are the push and the pull of Roman Liubyi's documentary film Iron Butterflies. The director had a premonition that the making of this film would serve as a warning to head off a potential future war. In reality, the war in Liubyi's home country of Ukraine has been raging for more than a year as the film has hit the festival circuit. Only his thought of a larger conflict has yet to take place. A Dutch court in November of 2022 found Russia responsible for the incident. The missile that struck flight MH17 was Russian made and the fateful strike was fired by a four person anti-aircraft team or Russian BUK missile-launcher made up of 3 Russians and one Ukrainian based in Eastern Ukraine. Western powers' reaction to this event plus the invasion of Crimea was part of Vladimir Putin's calculus that he could march into Ukraine unopposed in February 2022. Expect to be in Kyiv in a few days, remove the sitting government, and put in a Russia-friendly one without any involvement except maybe empty rhetoric from the West.
The information communications and media clips gathered, organized, and presented by Liubyi and his team is staggering. The audio intercepts alone show the joy of the ground from the initial thought that they had hit a military target, to justifications based on the plane being used to smuggle weapons to the truth that children and civilian bodies and luggage were all that were found at the scene then the panic and plan hatched to avoid and shift blame being forming in real-time. The Russian propaganda machine shifts into overdrive. Discrediting the scientific findings. Calling independant footage from multiple sources of Russian equipment movement as doctored. Even going as far as doing their own recreation to get to the expected favourable conclusion.
Liubyi's film plays more like a defense attorney laying out exhibits to garner a conviction rather than a writer's storyline. The title comes from the shape of the shrapnel fragments embedded into the nose and front section of the Malaysian serving as fingerprints leading the investigators to Russian missile stock. Also included for reference are old 80's era instructional videos on the BUK and the roles of the four unit members. A narrative contradicted by the Russian in-house reconstruction. A first-person account from the debris field to the courthouse in The Hague by former Dutch soldier turned musician Robby Oehlers. He had a cousin who was with her boyfriend on the plane at the time of the attack. Oehler probes smartphones, takes video at the crash site and shows film of happier times with his relatives. He also poses important questions at the time that peaked at the start of the current war. If the courts found Russia responsible resulting in scores of Dutch causalities. Why are the Netherlands and the rest of Europe still buying their oil filling their coffers? A telling shot towards the end of the film shows flight paths across Europe. In most countries, you can see below a bee hive activity of planes above. Except for one noticeable spot above Russian and separatist-controlled Ukraine is a gaping hole.
***1/2 Out of 4
Iron Butterflies | Roman Liubyi | Ukraine/Germany| 2023 | 84 Minutes.
Tags: Flight MH17, Eastern Ukraine, Malaysian Airlines, Russia, BUK Missile Launcher, The Hague, War Crime, Video Footage, Intercepted Audio, Crime Scene, Butterfly shaped Shrapnel, Reconstruction, Disinformation,
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