A scene from Russians at War. Photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-TIFF
The Toronto International Film Festival has reinstated screenings of Russians at War, a controversial documentary about Russians fighting in Ukraine that has been accused of being a “propaganda film”, Canadian national public broadcaster CBC reported on Monday.
The film will now be shown on Tuesday, according to the festival website. The organisers decided to pull the film from the festival programme on Thursday, citing security concerns following protests from Canada’s large Ukrainian diaspora. The festival has yet to issue a statement explaining its decision to screen the film.
The documentary, 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”.
Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova denied that her film aimed to whitewash the Russian army. She stressed that she “unequivocally” believed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was “unjustified” and “illegal”, though also said that she had not witnessed any signs that war crimes had been committed during her time near the frontline in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Culture Ministry announced on Monday that it had added Trofimova to a list of persons who were a threat to Ukrainian national security. The ministry said her film promoted the idea that the war was “a conflict between two brotherly peoples” and that both Russians and Ukrainians were victims, which was “unacceptable in the context of real events”.
