(Geneva) The controversial documentary Russians at War will ultimately not be presented to the public, the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) announced on Thursday evening, citing security reasons to explain its about-face.
Russian-Canadian director Anastasia Trofimova will also not make the trip to Zurich “in view of the situation”, specifies the festival in a brief press release published on the social network X, which adds that the film remains in the documentary competition. .
“The Zurich Film Festival has decided not to publicly screen” the film “for security reasons.”
“For the ZFF, the safety of the public, guests, partners and our teams is the absolute priority,” the press release continues without giving details on the precise reasons which led it to say this.
The Toronto festival also invoked “threats” to justify the deprogramming of this film in which the Russian-Canadian director gives voice to Russian soldiers.
Presented at the Venice Film Festival, it immediately attracted the wrath of Ukrainian cultural and political figures who see it as “Russian propaganda”.
Last Thursday, ZFF director Christian Jungen again assured that the film would be screened while recognizing that the director was not without problems, particularly because of her work for the Russian state channel RT.
In a press release, the ZFF then explained that: “we can understand that the film arouses strong emotions among Ukrainians, but we are maintaining the screenings, because we consider Russians at War as an anti-war film which – likeIn the West, nothing newawarded four Oscars – shows how mostly young soldiers are beaten to pulp.”
It refers to Edward Berger’s German adaptation of novelist Erich Maria Remarque’s pacifist masterpiece about the horrors of the First World War.