Having already reviewed Neflix’s Beasts of No Nation, I decided to watch another Netflix original, Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom. This 2015 documentary film was directed by Russian-American Evgeny Afineevsky, opened at the Venice Film Festival and is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary (though it will likely lose out to the much-talked about documentaries, Amy and Cartel Land). The movie documents the Euromaidan protests in Kiev, Ukraine from the early unrest to President Viktor Yanukovych’s resignation.

Afineevsky takes a broad view of the historical events in 2013-14 and uses a wide variety of first-hand footage, interspersed with interviews. It does focus around several people who participated in the protests, who represent the diversity of people who took part. There are middle-aged professionals, young students, priests, veterans, pop stars, homeless children all demanding that the government change. He follows the events chronologically and allows the subjects that he is interviewing to shed light on the events. Minus a brief overview of modern Ukrainian history, there is no narrator for this film.

In terms of creating a compelling narrative for his film, Afineevsky does a wonderful job. With a title like Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, you can generally guess what editorial position the director took. He shows a protest movement that is bursting with energy and ready to change their country, even if it means getting beaten, abused, or even shot. He also does a wonderful job showing the dissatisfaction many of the protestors had with opposition political leadership and how the protestors lead in a grassroots fashion. He shows a Ukraine that is united in its need for change, regardless of religion, nationality, or background. And he has some pretty breathtaking and beautiful shots of what this popular movement looked like.

Unfortunately, Afineevsky sacrifices nuance in favor of that simplistic narrative. The Euromaidan protests are recent history and their impact and legacy are still hotly debated. While it may seem like an appealing story that the citizens of Kiev who rose up against Yanukovych represented the whole of Ukrainian society, this simply was not the case. Ukraine was and still is an incredibly divided country. While it is true that many people in Kiev loathed Yanukovych (who was undeniably corrupt and autocratic), he had a broad base of support in the Donbass region of Ukraine, which eventually lead to the bloody secession attempt after Yanukovych’s resignation. One man’s revolution is another man’s coup. Afineevsky also avoids the unseemly fascist elements of the protests, instead deciding to focus on the more attractive elements. His streamlined narrative is not untrue, it just fails to appreciate the larger complexity of the situation.

If you know nothing about the recent events in Ukraine, this is a good documentary to get an overview of the situation. It is easy to watch, compelling and informative. But, like most documentaries with a political edge, watch this movie with an element of skepticism.