Swiss festival censors film amid Ukrainian threats
The Zurich Film Festival has dropped a scheduled screening of a documentary about Russian soldiers due to threats from Kiev, the newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung reported this week, citing a press statement. The decision was reportedly made over security concerns.
The documentary feature titled ‘Russians at War,’ filmed by director Anastasia Trofimova with Canadian government funding, was due to be screened at the festival next week. The feature recounts the seven months Trofimova spent with a Russian military unit at the front in the Ukraine conflict. In the film, she brought to the fore the personal stories of the soldiers she met.
The documentary premiered earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival, instantly drawing criticism from Kiev, which branded it “Russian propaganda.” A planned screening at the Toronto International Film Festival was subsequently canceled due to claims that staff had received threats.
The Zurich festival said it was forced to drop the screening amid worries over the “safety of our audience, guests, partners and employees.” The decision was made shortly after a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, posted a message on X demanding the documentary be removed from the festival’s program.
“We urge [Zurich Film Festival] organizers not to ruin the festival’s reputation by screening ‘Russians at War.’ This is a propaganda film that whitewashes war crimes, not a documentary,” Georgy Tikhy wrote in his post. However sources have told the Neue Zurcher Zeitung that festival organizers were pressured by representatives of the Ukrainian government and pro-Kiev activists, as well as by threats expressed via social networks.
Despite caving in, the festival announced that the film would remain eligible for prizes in the competition and that the jury would view it behind closed doors.
Trofimova previously explained that her goal in making the documentary was to refute the notion promoted by the West that all Russian soldiers are war criminals. She also said her film is expressly “anti-war,” and shows the “absolutely ordinary people” fighting in the Russian army. However, after the feature’s premiere in Venice, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture declared Trofimova a “threat to national security.”
