Bernd 02/20/2023 (Mon) 13:09 No.49851 del
Watched Best in Hell (2022), the Wagner Group's fictionalized take on the battle of Popasna. Reviews, if you're interested:
https://www.militantwire.com/p/wagner-groups-best-in-hell-movie
https://youtube.com/watch?v=NVM_hRj5Jpo [Embed]

They don't actually say where it takes place or that it's between Wagner and Ukrainians, it's just the "White" and "Yellow" teams. It's not directly propagandistic in a political sense, either, the entire movie is just action, they don't stop to discuss politics and hardly even personal matters and character backstories. I remember just one moment of casual humor, and two moments exposing characters' family backgrounds. Combat is as realistic as it gets, emphasizing artillery as much as infantry and depicting drone recon and the chain of command. Maybe in the end the 1v1 close quarter fights get more cinematographic than realistic. The combat is entertaining, though it took me a while to feel immersed.

As all reviewers note, and it's explicitly said in the movie, both sides are mirror images of each other, the sole difference is the color of their armbands. They both use rational tactics (though they commit mistakes and there's an element of luck) and fight on heroically until the bitter end. One of the reviewers think the target audience is Ukrainians, to convince them they're the same people as Russians. But to me it's obvious the intended audience is potential Wagner recruits in Russia. They show their enemies as courageous and competent so that defeating it makes them even more courageous and competent. They also want to show stoic sacrifices until the end are manly even though, as they also show, it's brothers fighting brothers until annihilation for zero long-term operational impact.