In this episode, we’re speaking with director Roman Liubyi, whose feature documentary Iron Butterflies just had its world premiere at Sundance 2023 and examines the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over Eastern Ukraine by Russian forces. The flight killed all 298 people on board, and Russia was never officially held accountable. We’re discussing how fragile the truth is – and the power of film in persuasion.
About Iron Butterflies from the Sundance website: “As voluminous evidence — including physical artifacts like the butterfly-shaped shrapnel found in the bodies of the pilots — piled up, the lies denying reality only became more outlandish and incredible. … Iron Butterflies presents the truth of what happened to MH17, but also what was at stake by not confronting it. Director Roman Liubyi uses a wealth of visual material and individual testimonies to craft this artful yet evidence-driven examination of a turning point in recent world history. This act of mass murder not only destroyed so many people’s lives and the possible future that they could have built — it contained the seeds of the future we now live in.”
Iron Butterflies was produced by Ukrainian film collective Babylon 13. Find out more about the film and the collective, which Roman is a part of, at babylon13.org.ua. Stay updated on the collective’s work on their YouTube channel: youtube.com/babylon13ua.