45 Days - The Fight For A Nation, with Emile Ghesson

In this episode of the Defence Connect podcast, former Royal Marine Commando and filmmaker Emile Ghesson joins host Liam Garman to discuss his recent film 45 Days – The Fight For A Nation documenting the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, as well as his last three months monitoring the conflict in Ukraine. The podcast begins with a reflection of Ghesson’s 12-year career as a Royal Marine, spanning service across the world including Afghanistan and Iraq before working as a high-profile body guard. The pair then discuss Ghesson’s turn toward documentary making, joining colleagues in Syria to document the fight against ISIS in 2017, Ukraine in 2019 and Azerbaijan-Armenia in 2020-2021. 45 Days - The Fight For A Nation analyses the recent Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict from a humanitarian perspective, while examining the history of intergenerational trauma in Armenia dating back to the Armenian genocide. However, when promoting the film in Hollywood –Russia’s began their invasion of Ukraine, prompting Ghesson to travel to Ukraine to document the day-to-day of life in Ukraine. Ghesson details his last three months in Ukraine, providing insight into the recent conflict direct from the front lines – including failures within Russian military strategy, irregular warfare behind enemy lines, the recent siege of Mariupol, and a discussion around the hotly debated Azov Regiment. To learn more about Ghesson, you can visit his page here or view his recent film 45 Days: The Fight For A Nation here. Enjoy the podcast, The Defence Connect Team