(Ottawa) The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) announced Thursday that it is “pausing” screenings of the controversial documentary Russians at War after receiving “significant threats.”
“We have been made aware of significant threats to festival operations and audience safety,” organizers said in a statement, referring to reports “indicating potential activity in the coming days that poses a significant risk.”
“This is an unprecedented decision” for the festival, they added in a statement. “We are committed to screening it when it is safe to do so.”
Canadian-Russian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova presented Russians at War (Russians at War) at the Venice Film Festival, after spending several months in a Russian battalion on the Ukrainian front, gleaning the testimonies of soldiers from which she made this film of more than two hours.
It was due to premiere in North America at the Toronto Film Festival on Friday, with screenings scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
In Venice as in Toronto, Ukrainian political and cultural figures expressed their anger, denouncing “Russian propaganda”.
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland earlier this week deplored the screening of the film, saying that “there can be no moral equivalence in this war.”
PHOTO DARRYL DYCK, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
The Ukrainian State Agency for Cinematography also asked the Toronto Film Festival not to screen the film, calling it a “dangerous tool for manipulating public opinion.”
Anastasia Trofimova told AFP that her film was “an anti-war documentary” and showed “ordinary people”.
According to an AFP journalist who saw the film, those seen on screen seem to have lost the sense 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.
Producer Sean Farnell told X that the decision to cancel screenings “broke his heart”.
He blamed criticism from senior officials for “inciting the violent hatred that led to the painful decision to pause the presentation of Russians at War. »