The Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival and the Embassy of Ukraine in Hungary cordially invite guests to the screening of the Academy Award-nominated documentary 20 Days in Mariupol and the subsequent roundtable discussion on the occasion of the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine

20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL
directed by Mstyslav Chernov
Ukraine, 2023, 94 mins

On the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a team of Ukrainian journalists enter the strategic eastern port city of Mariupol. During the subsequent siege and assault, as bombs fall, inhabitants flee, and access to electricity, food, water, and medicine are severed, the team — the only international journalists left — struggles to cover the war atrocities and transmit their footage. Eventually, surrounded by Russian soldiers, they shelter in a hospital, unsure of how they’ll escape.

The film will be shown in original language, with Hungarian and English subtitles. 

Since February 24, 2022, after eight years of hybrid war, there has been a full-scale, unjustified, genocidal war in Hungary's neighbour country that claims the lives of innocent Ukrainians every day. What are the real reasons for the open Russian attack on Ukraine? What is the current situation and what are the consequences of this war? What are the perspectives and what can the international public do to end Russian aggression?

These questions will be discussed by the participants of the panel discussion:
- István Balog, Interim Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of Ukraine in Hungary,
- Anton Bendarjevsky, expert on the post-Soviet region, journalist, Director of the Oeconomus Economic Research Foundation,
- Krisztián Jójárt, security policy expert, John Lukács Institute of the National University of Public Service,
- András Rácz, expert on Russia, senior expert of the German Foreign Policy Association, master lecturer at the Corvinus Institute for Global Studies.

Moderator: Miklós Mitrovits, historian and senior research fellow at the Central European Research Institute of the National University of Public Service.

The panel discussion will be held in Hungarian. 

The date and venue of the event: 28 February 2024, 6 p.m., Blinken OSA Archivum (Budapest 1051, Arany János utca 32.)

The event is free to attend, but requires pre-registration. [The event is full, the registration is closed.]