The "Surprise guest" is a column where we welcome distinguished personalities from science, journalism and culture. Our guest this month is American film director, producer and cinematographer Evgeny Afineevsky, who has made acclaimed documentaries about the wars in Ukraine and Syria.

His film "Winter on fire: Ukraine's fight for freedom", which covered the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine in 2013-2014, was nominated for an Oscar and four Emmy awards. In 2016, he spent months in Syria shooting a comprehensive account of the war in his award-winning documentary "Cries from Syria", an official selection at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. In 2022, he made another film on Ukraine: "Freedom on fire: Ukraine's fight for freedom ". The film chronicles the early stages of the recent invasion, showing the devastating consequences of the war on the lives of ordinary Ukrainians.

EESC info interviewed him about his work as a filmmaker documenting wars.