Ukrainian MPs call on Canadian government to prevent screening of Russian propaganda film at festival
Ukrainian lawmakers have urged the Canadian government to prevent the Toronto International Film Festival from screening Russian-Canadian director Anastasia Trofimova's propaganda film Russians at War.
Source: a copy of the MPs’ letter posted by Ukrainian MP Yevheniia Kravchuk
Quote: "This case is a striking example of how Russia, thanks to its soft power, is trying to promote its narratives about a ‘more comprehensive understanding of the war’. And unfortunately, they are doing this quite successfully," Kravchuk commented.
Kravchuk says the film has already received US$340,000 from the Canada Media Fund, which is funded by the Canadian government.
The letter was signed by 21 parliamentarians, including Oksana Savchuk, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, Roman Lozynskyi, Mykola Kniazhytskyi, Mykola Poturaiev, and others.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has also written to the organisers of the Toronto Film Festival urging them not to screen Trofimova's film. In their letter, Congress representatives described the film as an attempt to justify the war and Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
Ukrainians believe that the filmmakers blame "propaganda" or "the fog of war" for the genuine murders committed by Russian troops.
How the Russian propagandist film reached Venice
Russians at War, the documentary directed by Russian-Canadian Anastasia Trofimova, was screened at the Venice International Film Festival on Thursday 5 September.
The film, which was shown apart from the Festival's competition programme, follows a group of doctors who recover bodies from the battlefield and are devastated when three soldiers from their unit return in black body bags. The soldiers are losing their motivation to keep fighting, using outdated weapons and equipment, and trying to escape reality with alcohol and cigarettes. They even refer to the war coverage in the Russian propagandist media as "lies".
The film does not, however, depict the destruction and deaths that the Russians are inflicting on Ukrainians. One of the soldiers in the film explicitly denies the accusations that Russian troops are committing war crimes. Trofimova claims that she saw no war crimes while making the film.
"I think that in the Western media Russian soldiers are associated with this [war crimes – ed.] because there were simply no other stories. This is a different story: this is my attempt to see through the fog of war and show people for people," she said.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has protested the screening in a letter to the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy and the President of the Venice Biennale, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. The letter states that screening a pro-Russian film at the Biennale is unacceptable while "the Russian Federation continues to wage a cynical and bloody war against Ukraine".
The Ukrainian Embassy in Canada and the Ukrainian Consulate General in Toronto have also written to the organisers of the Toronto International Film Festival asking them to cancel the screening of Russians at War.
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