The Toronto International Film Festival announced, on Thursday, September 12, in a press release, “pause” screenings of the controversial documentary Russians at war after receiving “significant threats”.
“We have been informed of significant threats to festival operations and public safety”The organizers said in the text, referring to the information “which indicates potential activity in the coming days that poses a significant risk”. “This is an unprecedented decision” for the festival, they added. “We are committed to examining it when it is safe to do so.”
Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova presented Russians at war at the Venice film festival in early September, after spending several months in a Russian battalion on the Ukrainian front, collecting testimonies from soldiers from whom he made this more than two-hour film. It was scheduled to premiere in North America at the Toronto festival on Friday. Screenings were then scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
“A documentary against war”
In both Venice and Toronto, Ukrainian political and cultural figures expressed their anger, denouncing “Russian propaganda”. Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s deputy prime minister, deplored the screening of the film earlier this week, saying that“There could be no moral equivalence in this war”.
Ukraine’s State Film Agency also asked the Toronto Film Festival not to screen the film, which it describes as“a dangerous tool for manipulating public opinion”Anastasia Trofimova said in a statement that her film was the complete opposite. “an anti-war documentary” and that the monster “ordinary people”.
“In response to recent attacks on my film Russians at war And against myself, I would like to reaffirm that this French-Canadian co-production is an anti-war documentary and that great risks had to be taken in order to make it.”explains. “The insinuation that this is Russian-orchestrated propaganda is absurd, knowing that I am threatened with criminal prosecution in Russia. I unambiguously condemn the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military and recognize the legitimacy of the investigations launched by the International Criminal Court into crimes committed in Ukraine. I also understand the suffering and anger this issue can provoke in those who have to suffer war. My mother immigrated to Canada from Russia so that we could live in a country that valued freedom of expression and human rights. I hope that my film can be seen, appreciated or questioned for its own sake, and not based on mere assumptions, and that the kind of debate it helps fuel can help bring about peace.”
According to an Agence France-Presse journalist who saw the film, the soldiers we see on screen seem to have lost the sense of their involvement in this conflict. Lacking equipment, they modify their own weapons, using equipment dating back to the Soviet era. Chaining together cigarettes and glasses of alcohol, they try to drown their dismay at the injuries or deaths of their comrades.
In an email to World Received on September 7, the French press agency and the production company Capa, co-producer of the film, reaffirm that it is in no way “pro-russian” but “It only shows the poverty and the state of mind of the rank and file soldiers on the Russian side”. He points out that if Anastasia Trofimova has “certainly worked for [la chaîne russe] RT”, This took place “A few years ago, and when filming abroad (especially in the Middle East), the channel was then the only one in Russia capable of financing long-distance missions”.
Producer Sean Farnel told X that the decision to cancel the Toronto screenings “it broke my heart”. He blamed criticism from senior officials for “incited violent hatred that led to the painful decision to suspend the presentation of Russians at war. »
