After stirring controversy in Venice with her documentary Russians at War, and seeing her North American premiere postponed in Toronto over apparent security threats, director Anastasia Trofimova on Tuesday said she still doesn’t understand the political reasons for the Russia-Ukraine war.
“The reason I went into this war is to understand the people who are fighting. In terms of finding political reasons, I still don’t know,” the Russian-Canadian filmmaker said during a post-screening Q&A as she defended the film being made while Trofimova was embedded with a Russian army battalion in Eastern Ukraine.
She was responding to a TIFF filmgoer asking if Trofimova had learned anything from her three years making Russians at War. “I say, I still don’t understand the reasons behind this war. If you do, and everything is so clear, I mean, I congratulate you. But I don’t. I don’t really know,” Trofimova told the questioner.
People holding Ukrainian flags and banners at demonstration outside TIFF Lightbox on Sept. 17, 2024.
Mert Alper Dervis /Anadolu via Getty Images)
Then asked by the same questioner if Russia was the main reason for the central European conflict, Trofimova added: “I think there are a lot of others factors involved, yeah, they’re definitely sending in troops to solve whatever grievances there are. It’s not right.”
When the TIFF questioner thanked Trofimova for her answer, the film’s Oscar-nominated producer, Cornelia Principe, also on stage at TIFF Lightbox, expanded on her director’s answer. “She said sending troops in to invade the country is not a way to solve a problem, right? That’s what she’s saying,” she told the festgoer, who again thanked Trofimova for her answer.
“It doesn’t seem like you understand,” Trofimova then responded from the stage during a tense exchange, at which point Anita Lee, chief programmer at the Toronto Film Festival, brought the post-screening Q&A to an end.
Ivanka Tymchuk, a board member with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which has criticized Russians at War as a propaganda film, was asked about Trofimova expressing ignorance about the politics behind the Russia-Ukraine war during the post-screening Q&A.
“The filmmaker who has a university degree would have an analytical thinking and she would put together the puzzle pieces and understand the fact that three provinces of Ukraine are occupied by Russia, which is a breach of international law,” Tymchuk told The Hollywood Reporter from outside TIFF Lightbox, where a vigil of around 200 Ukrainian Canadian protesters was taking place on Tuesday.
“The goal (of Russia) is obvious, to invade as much of Ukraine as possible,” Tymchuk added. A week ago, after an earlier protest of her film in Toronto, Trofimova told THR her first-person film had her talking to ordinary Russian soldiers over seven months in Ukraine to get a perspective no one else, including official Russian TV or Western journalists, has captured.
People holding Ukrainian flags and banners at demonstration outside TIFF Lightbox on Sept. 17, 2024.
Mert Alper Dervis /Anadolu via Getty Images)
Toronto fest organizers rescheduled the North American premiere for Russians at War for Sept. 17, after its 2024 edition wrapped only days earlier, due to security threats and political heat. During the 2:30 p.m. screenings for the film, two Ukrainian activists viewing the film briefly shouted their opposition as they walked out of the movie.
Their in-theater protest came during one scene where director Trofimova had asked a 19-year-old soldier why he denied war crimes, including the rape and murder of civilians, had been committed by the Russian military and his country.
The protesters as they made their way to the theater exits echoed claims by the Ukrainian government that over 100,000 incidents of alleged war crimes had been committed during the conflict, including the murder and torture of civilians. Asked about the protests during the post-screening Q&A, Principe added context not included in the film.
“That scene was to show actually he didn’t know the truth that was going on. Secondly, he’s the same boy who was talking to his girlfriend about her broken nail. I mean, if you’re going to take his word as the word of the film, of course not. We all know war crimes were committed. What she (Trofimova) wanted to find out is whether he knew or thought war crimes were committed,” Principe said from the TIFF Lightbox stage.
“A five-year-old could see that’s not a statement of fact for the film. It’s a statement of the state of that kid’s mind who’s talking to his girlfriend about her broken nail,” the film’s producer added. Controversy around the film first emerged at the Venice Film Festival, where the film had its world premiere.
People holding Ukrainian flags and banners at demonstration outside TIFF Lightbox on Sept. 17, 2024.
Mert Alper Dervis /Anadolu via Getty Images)
On Sept. 10, around 400 Ukrainian Torontonians gathered outside TIFF Lightbox to protest a press and industry screening of the film. They held signs that read, “Russians at War Justifies and Victimizes Killers and Rapists” and “Hello TIFF?! Russian Propaganda Kills.”
Deputy Canadian Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is of Ukrainian background, also expressed during a press conference in Ottawa concerns over TIFF screening Russians at War. That political heat, and “significant threats to festival operations and public safety,” according to TIFF organizers, helped prompt the cancellation of an official North American premiere for Trofimova’s film during Toronto’s Sept. 5 to 15 run, only to be followed by a quick reinstatement of Russians at War for TIFF Lightbox screenings on Sept. 17.
The Lunenberg Film Festival in Nova Scotia also plans a screening of Russians at War on Sept. 20, and the Windsor Film Festival in Ontario plans Oct. 25 and 26 screenings of the Canada-France co-production.
