Ukrainians assail Russian war film at Venice fest

Director Anastasia Trofimova poses during a photocall for the documentary “Russians at War,” out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, Venice, on Sept. 5, 2024. (Reuters)

• The screening at the prestigious festival sparked outrage across Ukrainian cultural and political circles against what many consider a pro-Kremlin film
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said it was “shameful” that a “propaganda film” was shown

KYIV: Ukrainian politicians and cultural figures on Friday slammed a screening of a Russian-Canadian filmmaker’s war documentary as propaganda, a claim the director denied.
Anastasia Trofimova presented at the Venice Film Festival “Russians at War,” in which she embedded with a Russian battalion as it advanced across eastern Ukraine after Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.
The screening at the prestigious festival sparked outrage across Ukrainian cultural and political circles against what many consider a pro-Kremlin film that seeks to whitewash and justify Moscow’s assault.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said it was “shameful” that a “propaganda film” was shown.
In a social media post, he asked why “Anastasia Trofimova, as well as some other Russian cultural figures — a country that kills Ukrainians, our children every day — can work in the civilized world at all.”
Trofimova has said that she wants to show the “absolutely ordinary guys” who are fighting for Russia and that her documentary belies the notion in the West that all Russian soldiers are war criminals.
“I want to be clear that this Canada-France production is an anti-war film made at great risk to all involved, myself especially,” she said in a statement to AFP.
An AFP journalist who saw the film said the soldiers depicted appear to have little idea of why they have been sent to the front.
They are shown struggling to make Soviet-era weapons serviceable, with others chain-smoking cigarettes and downing shots of alcohol amid the deaths and wounds of their comrades.
“The suggestion that our film is propaganda is ludicrous given that I’m now at risk of criminal prosecution in Russia,” Trofimova said in the statement.
“I unequivocally believe that Russia’s invasion on Ukraine was unjustified, illegal and acknowledge the validity of the International Criminal Court investigation of war crimes in Ukraine.”
But for Daria Zarivna, a Ukrainian social activist and an adviser to Yermak, the film sought to “justify the Russian military, which is directly responsible for crimes against the Ukrainian people.”
She also accused Trofimova of a “blatant silencing of war crimes and an attempt to blur the line between victim and aggressor.”
Prominent figures in Ukrainian cinema also slammed the documentary.
“This film may mislead you into believing that it is an anti-war film, one that questions the current regime in Russia,” Darya Bassel, a producer who watched the film at the festival, said in a Facebook post.
“However, what I witnessed is a prime example of pure Russian propaganda,” she said.
She said the film featured soldiers who repeat false Kremlin narratives about Ukrainians being “Nazis,” accusing Trofimova of ignoring Russian aggression against Ukraine since 2014.
Iryna Tsilyk, a Ukrainian filmmaker, called what she said were Trofimova’s attempts to promote a pro-peace message “vomit.”
She also criticized the Venice organizers for choosing to showcase “something that smells so bad.”
According to Trofimova’s website, she has previously made documentaries in Syria, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo that have been broadcast on Russia’s state-run RT television, which has been hit by sanctions from the European Union and the United States.