Review of the documentary «Episodes: Ukraine at the World Cup»

On Friday, June 14, the 17th European Football Championship kicked off in Germany, and very soon the Ukrainian national team will play its first match in the tournament. At the beginning of the week, Netflix presented the documentary «Ukraine at the World Cup», which was screened exclusively in the «Planeta Kino» cinema chain in April and is part of the «Episodes» documentary series, and is now available on streaming. In the review below, we tell you why this nostalgic film is a great gift for all Ukrainian fans, especially those with a long history.

«Episodes: Ukraine at the World Cup»

Genre sports documentary
Director Artem Grigoryan
Starring Andriy Shevchenko, Oleksandr Shovkovskiy, Artem Milevskiy, Ruslan Rotan, Vladyslav Vashchuk, Serhiy Fedorov, Viktor Vatsko, Ihor Tsyhanyk, Artem Frankov, Semen Altman, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, Alla Bubliy
Premiere Netflix
Year of issue 2024

In addition to «Ukraine at the World Cup», the documentary series «Episodes» also includes the film «Shadow of Chernobyl», dedicated to the history of the creation of the cult game S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and the episode of «Don’t Switch». The project was created by KNIFE!Films, which previously produced the documentary series «Flash», the film «Next», and the documentary «Stories of Ukrainian IT».

The authors of the film give a brief overview of the history of the national team and remind us that even in the days of the legendary Valery Lobanovsky, the team failed to overcome the qualifying barrier. Experienced fans will probably remember how the slogan «Our goal — 2002» was eventually reworked, but remained a pipe dream.

In September 2003, Oleg Blokhin took over the team and immediately surprised everyone with a loud announcement that he planned to lead the team to the World Cup directly from first place in the group. And then, if you recall, the opponents were serious — strong Denmark, Turkey, with its crazy support in the stands, and the reigning European champion Greece. Later, Blokhin admitted to Viktor Vatsko that he had made such an ambitious thesis in vain. But who could have imagined at the time that this promise would be fulfilled?

As Vatsko noted, Ukraine’s entry into the 2006 World Cup caused a real euphoria among Ukrainian fans. Our performers, from Yurkesh to Sashko Polozhynsky, also picked up this wave of joy and anticipation of the football festival, using the simple rhyme «football goal» everywhere. But the most interesting thing, of course, was to hear the players themselves.

For example, Oleksandr Shovkovskiy recalls his thorny path in the national team. In particular, how he was affected by the terrible mistake he made in the head-to-head matches for Euro 2000 with the Slovenes (how can we not recall the legendary «Sasha, where did you walk»? from Oleksandr Zhurakhivskiy). But then there was also a triumphant rehabilitation — in a series of post-match penalties in the 2006 World Cup with Switzerland. And we took revenge on the Slovenes in the build-up to Euro 2016.
Andriy Shevchenko also spoke about his impressions and emotions from that penalty shootout: we can find out how our star forward felt during the duel with Swiss goalkeeper Zuberbühler. There was also a high probability that Shevchenko would not be able to play in the tournament due to an injury he received in one of the matches in the Italian championship.

While watching «Ukraine at the World Cup» you may notice that in many interviews the camera prefers a slightly strange, deliberately «wrong» position in relation to the narrator. For some reason, the cameraman experiments the most in the slot with Viktor Vatsko, when he is either far to the side of the frame or even «turned» in profile to the viewer, and the shooting is done against the light.
In some places, the person is not talking to the camera at all, and the studio dubbing of certain interviews is too striking. Elsewhere, the assistant coach of St. Petersburg «Zenit», Tolik Tymoshchuk, flashes in the frame. But in general, these conditional roughnesses, whether forced or intentional, do not interfere with the comfortable perception of the story.

But now the main team of the country, led by the star of that legendary team Serhiy Rebrov, will face new challenges at the Euro 2024, which, like the fateful 2006 FIFA World Cup, is also taking place in Germany. At a time when every joyful moment is worth its weight in gold for all of us, we would like to wish our boys as many reasons for football happiness as possible this summer.

All national team fans, except for the therapeutic series «Ted Lasso», we also recommend the following projects on YouTube:

• Documentary film «Ukraine — russia: The match of a lifetime» on «Toronto TV» if you are interested not only in the sports but also in the political component of the historic match in 1999;
• The program of Alexander Denisov «The game of footballs» — issue about the same game between Ukraine and the Russians, issue about the 2006 World Cup, issue on the reasons for the failure of the national team at Euro 2016.