TIFF 2024: Protesters blast 'Russia at War,' director defends it as 'antiwar film'

By Wa Lone

TORONTO (Reuters) -Ukrainian diplomats and activists in Canada on Tuesday urged the Toronto International Film Festival to cancel further screenings of a documentary portraying Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, claiming the film serves as “Russian propaganda.”

"Russians At War" was filmed by Anastasia Trofimova, a Russian-Canadian director and cinematographer who spent seven months embedded with Russian troops near the front line in Ukraine.

The documentary is a raw and visceral look at the war from the unfiltered perspective of soldiers fighting on the ground. They speak directly to the camera about fear, death and hope as the war rages around them.

Ukrainian Consul General Oleh Nikolenko said the documentary was an attempt to white-wash war crimes committed by the Russian military since its invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

"This is highly crafted Russian propaganda and unfortunately the festival has not demonstrated any willingness to address our concerns," he said in an interview, referring to TIFF's decision to allow the screening.

Trofimova denied that her documentary was propaganda. On the contrary, she said, it was filmed without permission of the Russian government, putting her at risk of criminal prosecution in Russia.

"I want to be clear that this Canada-France co-production is an antiwar film made at great risk to all involved, myself especially," she said in a written statement.

"I unequivocally believe that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is unjustified, illegal and acknowledge the validity of the International Criminal Court investigation of war crimes in Ukraine," she wrote.

"Russians at War" was funded by the not-for-profit Canada Media Fund, supported in part through government grants, according to a TIFF media statement. It made its North American premiere at the festival after showing out of competition at the Venice Film Festival this month.

Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, herself of Ukrainian descent, also condemned the film and its inclusion in TIFF's program. At a Liberal Party retreat in British Columbia, she told reporters that Ukrainian diplomats and the Ukrainian-Canadian community have expressed grave concerns about it.

"It's not right for Canadian public money to be supporting the screening and production of a film like this,” she said.

"We have to be really clear that this is a war where there is no moral equivalency. This is a war of Russian aggression."

'FAIR POLITICAL COMMENT'

TIFF on Wednesday defended the film's inclusion, saying it could not be classified as propaganda, having been made "without the knowledge or participation of any Russian government agencies."

"As a cultural institution, we stand for the right of artists and cultural workers to express fair political comment freely and oppose censorship," TIFF said in a statement.

Outside a Toronto theatre on Tuesday, dozens of protesters gathered to decry the festival's decision to not comply with demands to cancel the documentary's screenings.

Olya Glotka, a Ukrainian-Canadian filmmaker who helped organize the protest, told Reuters that the Canadian government should investigate the funding of the film.

"This is not the right time to give voice to people who are daily committing war crimes, killing civilians and abducting children," she said.

(Reporting by Wa Lone in Toronto; Editing by Frank McGurty, Bill Berkrot and Diane Craft)