Russians at War

Russians at War
Directed by	Anastasia Trofimova
Written by	Roland Schlimme
Produced by	Cornelia Principe Sally Blake Philippe Levasseur
Cinematography	Anastasia Trofimova
Edited by	Roland Schlimme
Music by	Amin Bouhafa
Release date	5 September 2024
Countries	Canada France
Language	Russian

Russians at War is a 2024 Canadian and French documentary film, directed by cinematographer Anastasia Trofimova. The film focuses on the anti-war perspective and thoughts about Russian-Ukrainian unity reflected by Russian soldiers fighting on the front lines in Ukraine and civilians burying their men during the Ukrainian-Russian war.

The film's trailer was posted on September 4, 2024, while the documentary had its world premiere for the film industry on September 4, 2024, and for the public on September 5, 2024 at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, with four screenings in total at the festival. The North American premiere for the film industry was on September 10, 2024 at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, although public screenings had to be cancelled due to safety threats.

Synopsis

Shot in a fly-on-the-wall cinéma vérité style, Russians at War follows documentarian Anastasia Trofimova as she spends months following Russian soldiers from their homes to the frontlines of occupied Ukraine, with many of her subjects revealing feelings of confusion and disillusionment with their government.

Trofimova embedded herself with the Russian battalion, without permission from the Russian Ministry of Defense, as it makes its way across eastern Ukraine, getting a rare glimpse of an often ramshackle army in a regular state of disarray.

Trofimova takes the audience from 180 km behind the front lines where ranks are "replenished" to the trenches of the front line where the men die. The soldiers depicted are often volunteers who say they went to the front for various personal reasons: vague patriotism, avenging fallen friends, protecting loved ones, preventing their children from going to war in the future, or, more commonly, for money.

Throughout the film, Trofimova asks provocative questions to Russian soldiers that many Western journalists would like to ask and also stimulates a discussion about their relationship to the war. The film also shows several civilians and relatives of dead soldiers who question the war's purposes and the price to be paid for it.

Production

Trofimova, whose past projects all focused on human interest stories during the conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Kosovo or in the midst of natural disasters (in Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo) . This film is the 14th in which she focused on human interest stories, in this case during the Ukrainian-Russian war.

According to the New York Post that cited The Kyiv Independent, the film's entire budget was rather modest, 250 thousand dollars

Industry response

Within the film industry, Trofimova's film was recognized as an original, professionally done and gutsy anti-war documentary.

Anita Lee, the Toronto International Film Festival's Chief Programming Officer, wrote that "Trofimova assembles a spellbinding tale of sacrifice and disillusionment in which soldiers resemble pawns in a nefarious game. Russians at War reminds us of the human cost on both sides. As Trofimova so eloquently puts it, the fog of war is so thick that you can’t see the human stories it’s made of."

Deadline Hollywood's Melanie Goodfellow described the film depicting "botched military sorties; hiding, petrified in dug outs; shrapnel-shredded dead comrades being slung into trucks in body bags, and commanders in shell shock as they relive the day’s horrors. Any initial patriotic fervor dissipates, with the handful of subjects who survive to the end of the film questioning why they are there and expressing their lack of desire to fight, but suggesting they have no choice but to follow orders."

Zinaida Pronchenko summed it up: "Regardless of the motives and conditions of filming, this is unique material, the very ‘trench truth’ that is usually not visible behind the ‘fog of war’."

The German channel DW noted that "Trofimova's film is considered one of the few documentary video evidence from the Russian side of the front." .

During the film's word premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 5, 2024, the film received a five-minute standing ovation. Ukrainian producer Darya Bassel criticized the decision of the Venice Film Festival to screen Russians at War. During Ms. Bassel's press conference at the festival on September 4, 2024, she indicated that that she "hadn't watched the "Russians at War" yet" when she was making these comments, but added that the film "presents a very distorted picture of reality" and that Trofimova's documentary is "spreading false narratives". Bassel pointed out that the film pictures as Russian invasion started in 2022, while Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014; Trofimova claims that Russia wasn't at war for many years, while Russia participated in wars in Chechnya, Syria, Transnistria, Abkhazia and Georgia; people shown in film repeat Russian propaganda narratives about "Ukrainians are nazis" and "civil war in Ukraine".

Controversy

Response from Ukrainian and Canadian politicians

Before the film had been screened anywhere, the film sparked backlash from some regional experts, Canadian politicians and the Ukrainian-Canadian community. The Ukrainian government sent a protest letter to the 81st Venice International Film Festival in August 2024, before the film's trailer (September 4) or the film itself (September 5) had been released. A similar request was sent to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). On September 6, the day after the premiere in Venice, Ukrainian officials called for the film to be removed from TIFF in an attempt to prevent the film from being screened.

Ukraine's consul-general in Toronto, Oleh Nikolenko urged TIFF on September 6 not to screen this documentary and criticized the Canadian government for helping to fund the documentary.

Ukrainian MP Yevheniia Kravchuk stated on September 9 that the film is a "striking example of how Russia, thanks to its soft power, is trying to promote its narratives about a 'more comprehensive understanding of the war'. And unfortunately, they are doing this quite successfully.".

Deputy Prime Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland denounced the film on September 10. She said: "it's not right for Canadian public money to be supporting the screening and production of a film like this

Response from Ukrainian media

Many Ukrainian media outlets posted articles or videos describing a "scandal" at the 81st Venice International Film Festival around this film, depicting the standoff between Ukrainian and Russian filmmakers bringing their films to Venice as the main story of the festival . The presentation of both films proceeded without incidents.

Ukrainian press also underlines that Trofimova entered Eastern Donbas and Luhansk territories without Ukraine's permission while making the film. The critics insist that she whitewashed soldiers' war crimes.

Some media outlets expressed doubts about Trofimova's accompanied the Russian military to the front, filmed footage of military equipment and operations, asked her provocative questions and lived there for 7 months without an official approval from the Russian Ministry of Defense, considering the film to be a carefully crafted Russian propaganda project. They speculate that Trofimova, a former filmmaker at RT Documentary was secretly hired by the Russian authorities to produce this film.

Trofimova explains that there were many gaps in the control over media in the Russian Army, which was focused more on the military than on the media issues. She also reminded that the speculations about her being hired by Russia to produce this film don't make sense as "no Russian channel is allowed to show even a death of a solder, or criticize the war, unlike my film". She reminds of her risks of being prosecuted in Russia and that Russian soldiers wanted her to film them and their opinions as they had nothing to lose.

Response from film festivals and professional organizations

The Artistic Director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera defended the film, noting that the film is "very far from being an act of propaganda" and that "it is an anti-war film, with a very sensible and touching human approach, as well as great artistic craftsmanship."

The Toronto International Film Festival also denied the request of Ukrainian-Canadian community to exclude the film from the program. On September 10, 2024, the Ukranian community held a protest outside Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, where TIFF was holding the film's press screening. Following the protest, one of the film's funders, TVO, withdrew support from the film, adding that "TVO will be reviewing the process by which this project was funded and our brand leveraged." In response to the TVO withdrawal from the film, the Documentary Organization of Canada issued a statement in which it is "profoundly alarmed by TVOntario's Board of Directors' recent unilateral decision to withdraw support for the documentary "Russians at War," adding that it "raises serious concerns about political interference, and must be confronted in order to preserve the integrity of our media institutions."

TIFF defended its decision to include Russians at War in its program in a statement released on September 11, noting that "in no way should this film be considered Russian propaganda" and that "as a cultural institution, we stand for the right of artists and cultural workers to express fair political comment freely and oppose censorship. Because filmmakers, like all artists, work in dynamic engagement with their societies, we believe that our role as curators and presenters of the film must stand for an unequivocal defence of artistic expression and a commitment to provide safe, open spaces to engage, critique and reflect on artists' work."

However, on September 12, TIFF announced it was pausing the North American public premiere for the film citing "significant threats to festival operations and public safety". The pause resulted in the cancellation of three public screenings planned from September 13-15. TIFF noted that it was still committed to screening the film "when it is safe to do so".

Response from Anastasia Trofimova

Trofimova responded to the criticism in multiple interviews, stating that: "I want to make it clear that this Canadian-French film is anti-war and was made under great risk for everyone, especially for me". "I find it a little bit of a strange question if we can humanize or not humanize someone. So, are there lists of people who we can humanize and people who we can't? Of course, we have to humanize everyone. This is a huge tragedy for our region, first of all, and for the entire world". "If we don't see each other as people... these black and white stereotypes about each other, this will only make the war continue. This will only make the hatred grow... unfortunately, that's sort of the route taken by politicians, but I don't think that this is the route that regular people should take."

"The Ukrainian side wants me to show and then condemn military actions of Russian soldiers but their own films don’t show military actions of their soldiers. Instead Ukrainian films show human faces and lives involved in this war. So that what I show too: human lives. What Ukrainian side wants relate to different topics and scripts". Trofimova also agreed that the project was very risky for the soldiers and for her personally, and she did not believe at every stage of this project that it was possible. She felt that an anti-war film like this was worth the risks and could be her contribution to finishing the Russian-Ukrainian war.

External links

• Russians at War at IMDb