David Gutnik’s Rule of Two Walls — the title referring to the recommended method of sheltering during a bombing raid — receives its theatrical premiere August 16 at New York’s DCTV Firehouse Cinema before rolling out to selected cities via Monument Releasing. The doc, which depicts the work of Ukrainian artists making defiant work during the current war in Ukraine, is executive produced by Liev Schreiber and is the director’s foll0w-up to his fiction debut, Materna, which, like Rule of Two Walls, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. In an interview with Lauren Wissot timed to that festival premiere, Gutnik discussed making the film with a Ukrainian crew and including them in the picture itself:

When I met our DP, he had just come from Bucha, where he was carrying and pulling bodies—innocent men, women, kids—out of bags. Our sound recordist had to evacuate his home in Kyiv and had just come from Uzhhorod, where he had relocated his family and had been transporting refugees across the border.

The decision to include our crew in the film’s ensemble was made shortly after meeting them. For me, the approach felt necessary and grounded in the lived experience of the war. After all, the movie is about artists using their work to process atrocities and resist. Ukrainian cameramen and sound recordists are artists too, risking their lives to do the thing they know how to do: make movies.

About his decision to become involved as an EP, Schreiber said in a press release:

After Russia’s full-scale invasion, I co-founded BlueCheck Ukraine. In partnership with UNITED24, President Zelensky’s fundraising platform for Ukraine, our initiatives have been directing urgent financial support and local life-saving efforts to the front lines. Since February 24th of 2022, I have visited Ukraine often to support our joint efforts.

One of the places I traveled to in Ukraine is Borodyanka in the Bucha region, where I joined a group of journalists working to raise awareness about the war crimes committed there. I would later learn that during this time, David Gutnik and his local film crew were shooting a documentary, Rule of Two Walls, in the same neighborhood. I was introduced to David and his production team of Ukrainian artists. The film’s subjects, as well as the crew members, traveled from Kyiv, Irpin and Bucha to Lviv, and brought with them eye-opening testimonies and footage of their encounters with the Russian invasion.

In David’s film, I saw the embodiment of the resilience I observed during my time in Ukraine: the profound spirit, sense of nation and history emboldened by an existential war. As an artist in my own right trying to do all that I can to help Ukraine, I responded to the film’s focus on Ukrainian artists processing the brutality of the war, while using their art to fight back. This honest and intimate portrait of the first months of the war resonates deeply with me.

It is my hope that we can reach as many people as possible with this timely and moving film.