A screenshot from Russians at War.
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has cancelled scheduled screenings of Russians at War, a controversial documentary about Russians fighting in Ukraine, due to what it called “significant threats to festival operations and public safety” on Thursday.
Calling the move “an incredibly difficult decision”, TIFF said in a statement that documentary by Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova was the first film ever to be cancelled at the festival, adding that while it supported “civil discourse about and through films, including differences of opinion, and … peaceful assembly”, it had received reports of activity in the coming days that posed “a significant risk” and decided it could not proceed as planned.
The film, which was shot in occupied areas of Ukraine over the course of seven months in 2023, was screened at the Venice Film Festival on 7 September, causing an immediate outcry from Ukrainians.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called the documentary “an insult to the victims of Russia’s war against Ukraine”, adding that the film “misrepresents the realities of Russian aggression and serves as a tool for Kremlin disinformation”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top aide Andriy Yermak said it was “disgraceful” that a “propaganda film” had been shown in Venice.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada, Yulia Kovaliv, had urged TIFF to cancel the screening, saying the film was “an attempt to whitewash war crimes Russian soldiers committed in Ukraine”.
Trofimova stressed that she “unequivocally” believed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was “unjustified” and “illegal” and acknowledged “the validity of the International Criminal Court investigation of war crimes in Ukraine”, while also stressing that she had not witnessed any signs that war crimes had been committed during her time near the frontline in Ukraine.
