War Documentary “Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods” Wins 2025 BAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has awarded the BBC Two documentary “Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods” the 2025 BAFTA for Best Single Documentary, recognizing the film’s gripping and humanizing portrayal of Ukrainian soldiers on the eastern front, The Gaze reports, citing Ukrinform.
Directed by Jamie Roberts, Kate Spankie, Jonathan Smith, Clare Walker, and Stanislav Strilets, the film provides extraordinary access to one of Ukraine’s most violent battlefronts — a snow-covered forest near Kupyansk — where a single infantry company from Ukraine’s 210th Separate Special Battalion “Berlingo” faces relentless Russian assaults.
“Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods” is an extraordinary portrait of lives compromised by the turmoil of a bloody war, filmed by Ukrainian soldiers themselves.
The film follows the unit’s mission to defend a critical railway line, a strategic target whose capture could enable Russia to launch a direct attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Through helmet cameras, night-vision footage, and personal reflections, the documentary captures the emotional and physical strain of modern warfare with raw intimacy.
The BAFTA jury praised the film for its “intimate access, emotional depth, and commitment to truth amid one of the most consequential conflicts of our time.”
Produced for BBC Two, the film offers a rare and authentic look at a tightly controlled front line, showing both the military stakes and human costs of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
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