Iron Butterflies

Compelling if not altogether even, Iron Butterflies seeks to fill an important gap by revisiting a key moment in the history of the current Russo-Ukrainian War.

Liubyi passionately assembles the pieces to this testimony of a broken system, using a cinematic cynicism that is often moving in a way optimism is not.

Iron Butterflies becomes suitably haunting. It's a place where a regular documentary would not find itself: a place to scream silently at the sins committed against those 298 people

The way the message comes through the mouthpiece of performance art severely limits the impact of the severity and past-due immediacy that unfortunately robs Iron Butterflies of the influence it could wield, and inadvertently alienates the audience.