Schreiber boards Against All Odds doc
December 15, 2022
Liev Schreiber will ne the narrator of the documentary film, Against All Odds: The Failure Of Russia’s Blitzkrieg.
“Any film becomes alive once it acquires a voice,” said Artem Lytvynenko, the director. “Liev Schreiber was extremely engaged in the process, he cares about what’s going on in Ukraine. He has recently visited Kyiv and saw the destruction with his own eyes, therefore, he understands what he is narrating about quite well. Liev tried to remain unbiased in his narration and refrain from imposing his own emotions onto the viewer. He was also involved in the text adaptation to make it more dynamic and relatable to an English speaking audience”.
“Do you know what his terms for joining our film were?” asked Igor Storchak, the Executive Producer of Against All Odds. “It wasn’t about the money. He asked to be able to screen Against All Odds for fundraising purposes to help my country and her people. It touched us all deeply, the director and the producers, because it means that our values are shared with millions of people all over the world. It gives us hope”.
“What I responded to was the simple, clear chronology of an invasion. It is hard to believe that in our lifetimes we would ever witness a ground war like this again, so to see its evolution in vivid detail is an invaluable reminder of the fragility of our democracy and the ferocity with which the Ukrainians defended their own,” said Schreiber.
The narration was recorded at Mirrortone Studios (New York). The team of the studio was very enthusiastic about joining the project. “We wanted to help Ukrainians tell their story about this war of aggression being waged by Russia,” said Jay Rothman of Mirrortone Studios. “If we can help, in some small way, give a voice to the people in Ukraine fighting for their right to exist, we’re going to do our part. It was an honor that the filmmakers asked us to contribute.”
The Organization of Ukrainian Producers (OUP), Gingers Media with the support of Andriy Zagorodnyuk’s Center for Defence Strategies are now finishing work on Against All Odds. The creators of the film have set up a goal to represent the events surrounding Russia’s attempted blitzkrieg in the most objective way possible. They aspire to tell how the Ukrainian people managed to withstand the advance of the Russian army that was touted as one of the strongest in the world in an unbiased and informative way. The team traveled along the route of Russia’s advance and talked to the witnesses of these events, Ukrainian defenders of Hostomel, Irpin, Moschun. They also discussed the events with the current Minister of Defence of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov and the former Minister of Defence of Ukraine, Andriy Zagorodnyuk, as well as international military experts, such as Ben Hodges, the former Commanding General of the United States Army in Europe, William Taylor Jr, a former US ambassador to Ukraine, and more.
The film will premiere in 2023.