While the conflict between Ukraine and Russia continues, many companies and personalities have mobilized and responded to this invasion of Russia by withdrawing their various services as a support for Ukraine, but also as a sign of disapproval of the decisions of the Russian government. In order to shed a little more light on the history of Ukraine, netflix decided to give available for free a famous documentary on the country.
winter on fire
Every day, more and more people support the situation in Ukraine, like JK Rowling for example. And many companies have also taken a position on the conflicts, with many major players in the entertainment industry withdrawing from Russiasuch as EA, TikTok or even Netflix.
The platform also wanted to show its support by sharing with the world a part of the history of Ukrainians. This is why Netflix made the decision to publish on its YouTube channel the 2014 documentary Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedomchronicling the Ukrainian revolution that took place between 2013 and 2014.
When the documentary directed by Evgeny Afineevsky landed on the streaming platform in 2015, it then enjoyed greater visibility. This documentary received a very favorable reception as well as many praises, being in particular nominated for the Oscars for best documentary film and the Emmy Awards. It even won the People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix then showed its support directly on Twitterin response to a previous tweet from the director of the documentary in question:
We stand united.
Viewing of Winter on Fire is up sevenfold—including in Russia. https://t.co/GVAlRt7qvr
March 5, 2022
We remain united. The viewing of winter on fire has increased sevenfold, including in Russia.
At this very difficult moment for Ukraine, it is important to remember how it all started with the unity of the nation. Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom now available for FREE worldwide.
The documentary is therefore actually available now on YouTube and Netflix.. And the latest statistics from YouTube indicate that the 98-minute documentary has been viewed more than 500,000 times just five days after Netflix posted it on the platform.
This insight into Ukrainian politics, but also the will of the population to fight to defend their convictions, then appears as symbolic and all the more current given the conflict which currently opposes the country to Russia. The question now is whether and how the Russian government will react, when the latter has already asked YouTube to lift restrictions on the reach of state media and whose access to social media has been restricted.
For its part, Netflix seems to have already decided on the question. Last week, Wired reported that the company had already decided not to comply with a Russian law requiring it to carry 20 state-funded media channels, fearing that its platform could be used to spread misinformation.
