Liev Schreiber is backing the documentary Ukrainians in Exile. Janek Ambros’ doc, executive produced by two-time Oscar winner Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List), will go out two days before the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 22.
Spotlight and Everything Is Illuminated star Schreiber is throwing his support behind the short documentary looking at the refugee crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Schreiber’s charity BlueCheck Ukraine, which the actor set in the wake of the invasion to vet and raise funds for non-governmental organizations on the ground, is joining with Ambros on the release of the doc, which will go out online on Tuesday, Feb. 20. The Nation Magazine is bowing the film multi-platform across its website, YouTube and social media accounts. BlueCheck Ukraine will use the release to call on viewers to donate via www.bluecheck.in. Steven Spielberg’s longtime cinematographer Kaminski (Schindler’s List) is an executive producer on Ukrainians in Exile.
“Now more than ever it is essential that we continue to provide humanitarian aid to the exhausted and embattled Ukrainian people,” said Schreiber. “Unfortunately our deeply polarized congress is still withholding crucial funds that were meant to bolster Ukrainian social services. Without pensions, welfare, medical, food, or infrastructure the civilian population is more vulnerable than ever. Please write to your reps in Congress and remind them of our shared American values.”
Added Ambros: “Ukrainians need our support now more than ever, especially since Western support is unfortunately waning. I hope everyone can share the doc when it’s released and Liev’s charity to help the cause.”
Ambros shot Ukrainians in Exile in March 2022 in the Polish city of Przemysl near the Ukrainian border, a location that became a hub for hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the war. Alongside the unfolding refugee crisis, the film follows Anya, a woman residing in Ukraine who narrates her story as she contemplates how people in other countries will treat her fellow Ukrainians who were forced to flee.
The Nation Magazine president Bhaskar Sunkara noted that since Russia’s invasion, “millions have been displaced who deserve our solidarity and care. Ukrainians in Exile champions their cause.”
A crucial $95.3 billion military aid package, of which about $60 million is earmarked for Ukraine, is currently working its way through the U.S. Senate, but its fate remains uncertain. If the funding doesn’t go through, many fear Ukraine’s military will not be able to hold off the Russian advance
“Without the support of [the] United States, and without the support of the European states, Ukraine will have not a chance to defend its own country,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a joint press conference with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday, Feb. 9. Biden said a failure to support Ukraine would be “close to criminal neglect. It is outrageous.”
Ambros’ Assembly Line Entertainment most recently produced Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio’s In the Summers, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival last month. His next project as a director is Nixon’s Nixon, an adaption of the late Russell Lee’s play of the same name that satirizes the final meeting between President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger before Nixon eventually resigns.
