Tribeca Film Festival 2023: RULE OF TWO WALLS

For over a year, the world has watched, heard, and read about the destruction surrounding the war in Ukraine. The stories and the images have been as inspiring as they have been horrific, a country united against modern evil. After over a year of fighting, it becomes the only thing you think of when Ukraine is mentioned, no matter what side of the aisle you are on. And while the world watches Ukrainian soldiers fight for their country’s identity, its artists fight to preserve its culture.

With writer and director David Gutnik‘s Rule of Two Walls, we are brought to the front lines of preservation and expression through the comfort of the artistic form. This is not to say Rule of Two Walls does not capture the horror of war, its graphic imagery is gut-wrenchingly real. Yet, in the face of these atrocities, it is the resilience of artistic culture that shines brightest.

The Preservation of Ukrainian Culture

Rule of Two Walls opens to darkness, the sounds of war growing louder with each passing second. It is immediately immersive and deeply impacting. From its very beginning, Rule of Two Walls works off the senses, breaking from the traditional focus of visuals. For a moment you are there, on the front lines or in a bomb shelter, hearing the devastation around you.

The opening sequence is met with tranquility as a young couple wakes up in Lviv, Ukraine on April 2022. It is the 59th day since the full-scale invasion started. As immediate as the opening, audiences come to understand life in the midst of an ongoing war. The young couple makes their way through Lviv, laughing before heading out, the sound of bomb sirens grounding them within the true reality of the times. All around them are signs of a community attempting to retain a normal life in the face of war. Groups play basketball, cars move to continue to their destinations and businesses remain open, the young couple themselves making their way to the Municipal Art Center.

Rule of Two Walls is broken into various sections with a unified goal to preserve Ukrainian culture at the forefront. For this documentary, it is about the preservation of culture through the eye of the artist, with various forms of expression being presented to audiences. Through music, costume design, painting and photography, Ukrainian resilience, art and way of life are on full display. And so are their feelings about the war that surrounds them.

Much of the art showcased is paired with brutal images and video of the true devastation of the war. The contrast is so defined, it feels surreal – and shocking. The war unfortunately has become a part of the history of Ukraine, but one that may drive its culture to become even more defined. The film further embraces moments of catharsis through its various forms of escapism and expressionism, expanding its own contribution to the preservation of culture it is attempting to capture in its own creator contributions. In a brilliant creative construction by Gutnik, Rule of Two Road‘s talking heads and voiceovers are contributed by those creating this documentary. We see them and hear them, making them all the more real.

Conclusion

Rule of Two Walls will horrify as much as it will inspire. In the face of war, it is an artistic expression of the hope and resilience of a nation. There is a refusal to be silenced and to be forgotten. Constantly moving through the various art forms of Ukrainian artists, Rule of Two Walls excels with moving film and sound editing, flaunting exceptional camera work in movement and framing – especially within Ukraine’s art museum. A visceral expression of the artistic need to survive and preserve, Rule of Two Walls is one of the most vital and poignant documentaries of the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.

Watch Rule of Two Walls