Do the Russians cry too? Russia Today propagandist's film screened at the Venice Film Festival
A documentary by Russian-Canadian director Anastasia Trofimova called Russians at War was screened at the Venice International Film Festival on Thursday, 5 September, Reuters reports.
The documentary filmmaker spent seven months with a Russian battalion in Ukraine’s east and created the film to "challenge stereotypes". She says they are considered heroes at home, but the global West labels them war criminals.
"To me, the biggest shock was to see how ordinary they were. Absolutely ordinary guys with families, with a sense of humour, with their own understanding of what's happening in this war," Trofimova said after the film's premiere.
However, she does not deny that most soldiers go to war to earn money. Some soldiers fight for "revenge" and "out of a sense of camaraderie" for their fallen comrades.
"People might not really understand the reasons behind (the war), but they start to fight because they lost someone. And it's maybe a question of revenge," the director added.
The film was screened outside the competition programme of the Venice Film Festival. The film tells the story of a team of medics who take bodies away from the battlefield and are in despair when three fighters from their unit return in body bags. The soldiers are losing their motivation to keep fighting, they use obsolete weapons and equipment, and try to escape reality with alcohol and cigarettes. They even call the coverage of the war in Russian propaganda media "lies".
However, the film does not show the destruction and casualties that the Russians are inflicting on Ukrainians. One of the soldiers in the film openly denies the accusations that Russian troops are committing war crimes. Trofimova herself says that while she was making the film, she did not see any such crimes.
"I think in Western media, that's what Russian soldiers are associated with at this point, because there were no other stories. This is another story. This is my attempt to see through the fog of war and to see people for people," she stressed.
How people reacted to the film about Russians
The film has already been screened by guests of the Venice Film Festival, including Ukrainians. They shared interesting details about the Russians at War and the director's attitude to the film.
The director of Songs of a Slow Burning Land, Olha Zhurba, expressed her opinion about the film at a press conference after the screening and stressed that it is too early to empathise with the Russian forces: "I think Russian film-makers should ... show the real face of the criminals of this war."
Trofimova disputed this view and stressed that Russians should not lose their ties with the world: "Since the beginning of the war on 24 February 2022, there have been a lot of bridges destroyed between Russia and the West. I would like this film to be maybe not a bridge, but at least a rope I can throw across and to help us see each other."
The film was also screened by Darya Bassel, producer of the Songs of Slow Burning Earth and programmer of the Docudays UA International Documentary Film Festival. She highlighted that while Trofimova's film may appear to be an anti-war piece, it can mislead viewers and is, in fact, an example of high-quality Russian propaganda.
"The filmmaker starts her narrative with a Ukrainian who now lives in Russia and fights on the Russian side. This is a very intriguing choice for the beginning of a story about Russians at war. Later, this character will claim that a CIVIL war began in Ukraine in 2014. He will also suggest that Ukrainians bombed the eastern parts of their own country (and this is why he moved to Russia).
Another character will declare that Ukrainians are Nazis. We’ve heard these narratives before; they are (and apparently still are) widely and actively propagated by Russian media. One of those horns of propaganda is Russia Today channel, for which the director of Russians at War has previously made several documentary films," Bassel stressed.
At the end of the film, the Russian battalion is relocated to Bakhmut. Most of the protagonists die, and their relatives mourn their loss. Ultimately, the director concludes that Russians are ordinary people who are manipulated by politicians for their own agendas.
"I found this perspective amusing because the filmmaker – like putin [sic] and his regime – plays an interesting game with these people. They deny them the simple ability to possess dignity and to think and decide for themselves. To her, these people are merely powerless objects. If those engaged in a war that has lasted over 10 years were not powerless, it would imply that they, in the majority, actually support this war, wouldn’t it?," Bassel emphasises.
Instead, Darya recommends watching the Peaceful People by Oksana Karpovych. This film provides a revealing look into the lives of ordinary Russians involved in the war and is sure to be eye-opening. You might also want to add 20 Days in Mariupol to your watchlist in order to, as the director of Russians at War so aptly puts it, "see through the fog of war".
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