- June 24, 2026
- 11:41 am
- Israel
In Tel Aviv, a screening of the film “Ціна правди” / Mr. Jones took place — a historical drama by director Agnieszka Holland about the Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, one of the first Western reporters who in 1933 tried to tell the world the truth about the Holodomor in Ukraine. The screening was organized by the Embassy of Poland in Tel Aviv in cooperation with the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel, reported Israeli Friends of Ukraine on June 24, 2026.
Why this film is important today
“Ціна правди” is not just a film about the past. It is a story about how truth can become dangerous when it is opposed by the state machine, diplomatic pressure, censorship, and fear.
The screenplay was written by American journalist of Ukrainian descent Andrea Chalupa, and directed by Agnieszka Holland. At the center of the plot is Gareth Jones, a journalist from Wales who in the early 1930s went to the Soviet Union and saw what the Soviet authorities tried to hide: mass famine, destroyed Ukrainian villages, death, silence, and the forced destruction of millions of people.
For the Israeli audience, this topic resonates particularly sharply. Israel understands well that historical memory is not an archival formality, but a part of national security, social resilience, and the people’s right to their own voice. When crimes are silenced, they do not disappear. They return in new forms — through propaganda, denial, cynicism, and attempts to rewrite history.
Gareth Jones and the price of testimony
A journalist who went against convenient lies
In 1933, Gareth Jones became one of those who dared to speak about the famine in Ukraine under his own name. His testimonies were especially important because they were not about rumors or political declarations, but about personal reporting experience: he saw the famine with his own eyes and tried to convey this truth to the Western press.
The Holodomor of 1932–1933 is considered an artificially created famine that claimed millions of lives in Ukraine. Britannica describes it as a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine, and research and educational materials on the Holodomor emphasize that it was one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century.
Holland’s film shows not only the tragedy itself but also the mechanism of its concealment. The world could have learned more and earlier, but the truth faced convenient political calculations, career interests, and the desire not to irritate Moscow. In this sense, “Ціна правди” speaks not only about Ukraine in the 1930s but about any era where journalism becomes a struggle for the right to call a crime a crime.
That is why such cultural events in Israel are significant not only for the Ukrainian community. They are important for everyone who understands: memory of the past is a way to recognize lies in the present. In this context, НАновости — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency views such initiatives as part of a broader connection between Israel, Ukraine, and those communities for whom truth, testimony, and historical responsibility remain not abstract words, but personal experience.
Tel Aviv as a place for conversation about memory
Ukrainian history in the Israeli space
The screening of the film in Tel Aviv was a gesture of solidarity and memory. The participation of Polish and Ukrainian diplomatic missions emphasizes that the conversation about the Holodomor has long gone beyond just Ukrainian history. It is a European, Jewish, Israeli, and international topic — about totalitarianism, silence in the face of crime, and the price of indifference.
Today, as Ukraine once again defends its right to freedom and existence, the story of Gareth Jones sounds particularly contemporary. It poses a question that concerns every society: what to do when the truth is inconvenient, but silence becomes complicity?
The film “Ціна правди” reminds us that dignity begins with the refusal to close our eyes.
Gareth Jones could not stop the tragedy, but his testimony became part of the historical memory that the Soviet system tried to destroy. And decades later, this memory continues to speak — in Kyiv, Warsaw, London, Tel Aviv, and in every place where people are ready to listen not to propaganda, but to the truth.
For Israel, such events are also important because people with different family memories live here: from Ukraine, Poland, the countries of the former USSR, Europe, and the Middle East. When a film about the Holodomor is shown in Tel Aviv, it is not just a Ukrainian evening. It is a conversation about how society maintains a human face in the face of evil, which always first demands silence.