The Toronto International Film Festival says screenings of a controversial documentary depicting Russian soldiers in Ukraine will go ahead as planned, despite Ontario’s public broadcaster pulling its support amid outcry from the Ukrainian community.
A statement from the festival Wednesday defended the film, Russians at War, a day after a large protest was held outside its debut screening calling for its removal. Ukrainian and Canadian officials and protesters have also raised concerns that the film, which they call “Russian propaganda,” was financed in part through Canadian public funding.
“In our view, in no way should this film be considered Russian propaganda,” a statement from TIFF said.
“While we understand the concerns expressed by many, we believe, like the Venice Film Festival and other international festivals who have programmed the film, that this Canadian documentary merits a place in our selection.”
The film’s Russian-Canadian director, Anastasia Trofimova, spent seven months embedded with a Russian army battalion in eastern Ukrainian territory occupied by Moscow’s forces to make the film, which she says was done without the Russian government’s knowledge. She and her financial backers have said the film shows the soldiers losing faith in the fight and seeks to humanize the ordinary men caught up in Russia’s invasion.
Ukrainian critics have argued the film attempts to whitewash Russia’s crimes in Ukraine and that Trofimova would not have been able to get such unfettered access to Russian troops without support from the Kremlin.
Festival organizers said Wednesday it’s their understanding that the documentary was made without the knowledge and participation of any Russian government agencies.
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They further defended showing the film on free speech grounds, adding they “understand and deeply feel the suffering of the Ukrainian people as the result of an illegal Russian invasion” and support their right to protest the decision.
Ukraine’s consul general in Toronto, Oleh Nikolenko, said on Facebook that while he appreciates TIFF acknowledging the Ukrainian people, “it is crucial not to confuse Russian propaganda with freedom of expression.”
“Ukraine as no one else understands democratic values as we defend them with our lives, but we oppose any manipulation that justifies the selection of this project,” he wrote. “It is not too late for TIFF to make the right decision and cancel the remaining screenings of the film.”
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which organized Tuesday’s protest and is planning another outside Friday’s screening of the film, called TIFF’s statement “insulting and appalling.”
Ukraine’s culture minister Mykola Tochytskyi, who was previously the top diplomat to the European Union, said on social media he had spoken to TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey and “emphasized that we will take all necessary legal actions to combat propaganda.”
TIFF’s statement came a day after Ontario’s public broadcaster TVO, which helped fund the documentary, announced it was no longer supporting the film and would not be airing it in the coming months as planned.
The board of directors said Tuesday it had “decided to respect the feedback we have received” and will be “reviewing the process by which this project was funded and our brand leveraged.”
Nikolenko applauded TVO’s decision and urged TIFF to follow suit.
A day earlier, the broadcaster had defended its support of the documentary, which it said was “made in the tradition of independent war correspondence” and was “at its core an anti-war film.”
TVO pulled its support after Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday it’s “not right” that Canadian public money went to support the documentary, and another Liberal MP called for an investigation into the process that led to TVO’s approval.
TVO used its funding allocation from the Canada Media Fund for the documentary. The Canada Media Fund receives money from both the federal government and Canadian broadcasters, which is then allocated back to those broadcasters for the creation of Canadian content.
The Canada Media Fund has stressed broadcasters make their own decisions on which projects to fund, without any input from the Canada Media Fund or the government, but said this week it was investigating the matter.
A spokesperson for Canadian Heritage declined to say if it would investigate the funding, instead stressing the CMF’s independence.
“The government does not make funding decisions for individual television or film projects,” spokesperson David Larose told Global News in an email Tuesday.
In a statement Wednesday, the Documentary Organization of Canada said it was “profoundly alarmed” by TVO’s decision to pull its support and that it “raises serious concerns about political interference.”
“This action by the Board of a public broadcaster to censor content poses a serious threat to independent media in Canada,” the statement sent to Global News said. “TVO’s decision risks setting a dangerous precedent and must be immediately reversed.”
In a statement provided by TIFF on Monday, Trofimova said her documentary is “an anti-war film” and that she believes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is unjustified and illegal. She claimed she is at risk of criminal prosecution in Russia, making accusations of propaganda “ludicrous.”
The director has said she did not witness any war crimes committed by the soldiers she was embedded with, and that it was important to show another side of the story of the war.
“If we don’t see each other as people … this will only make the war continue,” Trofimova told reporters at the Venice Film Festival last week.
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