I wouldn't say this film counts as propaganda even though there is a very obvious anti-Soviet narrative. I'm always turned off when a documentary doesn't respect its audience enough to remain impartial and just present the bare facts, and unfortunately I felt this with 'The Russian Woodpecker'. Gracia attempts to create intrigue by advertising that a deep secret explaining the Chernobyl incident has been uncovered, however, it's more of a conspiracy theory based largely on conjecture. All that being said, I found the interviews and stock footage to be very informative. This is more a documentary of Fedor Alexandrovich's protests against the current Russian government and the past soviet regime, than a in-detailed, factual account of either the Chernobyl or the Ukraine conflict.

i saw it after i downloaded it from vimeo.i was very expectant and curious.years before i experienced first hand the inexplicable sound of woodpecker transmissions,i never understood the illogical process that led to the detonation of the chernobyl reactor and could not comprehend the reasons behind such a deep hate as the one between ukraine and Russia. all these were perfectly exposed and explained in this almost perfectly composed cinematic production. a movie in which documantation, action and narration are interwoven and indistinguishable .the hero, following his intuition, manages to connect the dots and give answers where twenty years later an official answer is still missing. the chernobyl catastrophe was not an accident but a crime against humanity and justice must be done. most interestingly, now that the woodpecker transmission can be heard again in our receivers.

In the world of IIO and misinformation, the known fascist right sector/Svoboda actions in Maidan, including mounting evidence of right sector sniping their very own to force the 'new Ukraine'; we find in this 'Russian woodpecker', an American cuckoo. A 'contrivation' of CIAHollywood/Joel Harding proportion.An artist-proclaimed in the flyer as cult-hero, BUT only in the producers dreams. A noble quest and the evils of empire surround the making of this sophisticated propaganda piece. Why 'Victoria NULAND' s name doesn't feature in the credits alongside 'Yats' and the 5 billion USAID put into the coup d'état, can only be oversight on the NY side of the operation. But. They say disinformation has to contain truth, or it doesn't serve. And who knows whether the central premiss is correct? We know that Governments murder their own citizens -even the remotest fool knows 911 was an inside job- but to hide the facts of right sector /USA involvement in the coup behind this heroic sentimentality rap, is anti-history and can only place the makers of this work as myth makers. propagandists. To feature the terrible famine, but not Ukrainian fascist SS committing Babi-Yar...and their descendants running the Ukrainian Rada hand-in-hand with USAMO, is a crime of conscience.

I have seen this documentary twice, and I'd love to watch it again and again. It's a mesmerizing, full of details, thought provoking film. The director managed to incorporate important background historical information and did so in the most skillful way. "The Russian woodpecker" is an example of a masterful documentary: it's a true investigation (with interviews, work in the archives, site visits, etc), incorporation of real-time events (revolution in Ukraine broke out during work on this film), and addition of artistic details that better convey the personality of the main character Fedor. After participating in several Q&A sessions with the director and the crew I learned a lot of interesting information. I saw for myself how genuine they were about making a high quality documentary, and how surprised they were to see it morph into this almost incredible theory about Chornobyl disaster as they researched more and more. The most important to me is that they are themselves skeptical of the theory as the lack of official documents (a lot of them still being in secret archives in Moscow) prevents them from making definite conclusions. On the other hand, they invite the international community to continue the investigation and finally find the truth behind this terrible catastrophe.I really hope that this great documentary will inspire new official international investigation so the world will know the truth. Watch this film if you get a chance - you'll learn so much and you'll be inspired to question the world around you! Bravo!