(Ottawa) The North American premiere of Russians at War will not take place at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday after the controversial documentary about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was pulled due to “threats.”
Since its presentation at the Venice Film Festival, this film by a Russian-Canadian director giving voice to Russian soldiers has attracted the wrath of Ukrainian cultural and political figures who see it as “Russian propaganda.”
In a country with the second largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world at 1.3 million people, protesters gathered in the streets of Toronto on Tuesday to demand the cancellation of the three screenings scheduled for the festival.
The organizers had initially reacted by saying that they would maintain the screenings scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, before reversing course on Thursday because of “the existence of significant threats to the festival’s operations and the safety of the public.”
There are reports of “potential activity in the coming days that poses a significant risk,” they said in a statement, adding that suspending screenings was “an unprecedented decision” for the festival.
They have pledged to screen the film “when it is safe to do so.”
Toronto police told AFP on Friday that the decision to cancel the event was “made independently by the event organizers and not following recommendations from the Toronto Police Service.”
“We have no information about any future or potential threats at this time,” added Laurie McCann, a spokeswoman.
“Whitewashing crimes”
For this documentary, filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova spent several months with a Russian battalion on the Ukrainian front, collecting testimonies from soldiers from which she turned a film of more than two hours.
PHOTO DARRYL DYCK, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
According to an AFP journalist who saw the film, the fighters seen on screen seem to have lost the meaning of their participation in this conflict. Lacking equipment, they tinker with their own weapons, using equipment dating from the Soviet era. Chaining cigarettes and glasses of alcohol, they try to drown their dismay in the face of the injuries or deaths of their comrades.
Anastasia Trofimova told AFP that her film was “an anti-war documentary” and showed “ordinary people”.
But the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andrii Yermak, said the film should be “banned” because it presents “the aggressor as a victim” and “distorts reality.”
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry assured in a message on X on Friday that “the international cultural scene should never be used to whitewash crimes.”
“Misunderstanding”
The decision to cancel the screenings in Toronto has saddened one of the producers, Philippe Levasseur, who explained to AFP that he feared “repercussions on the Russian side” because the soldiers mentioned in the film “deliver a message that is in total contradiction with Moscow’s propaganda.”
“It is rather the story of a machine for crushing men which considers them as cannon fodder,” insisted Mr. Levasseur, speaking of a “misunderstanding” which he hopes to see cleared up.
But in Canada, public broadcaster TVO, which helped finance the documentary, has already announced that it is withdrawing its support for the film and said it will not broadcast it.
This follows criticism from Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
The latter, of Ukrainian origin through her mother, had opposed the screening of the film during the week, declaring that “there could be no moral equivalence in this war.”