An RT international film festival featuring dozens of documentaries on the Ukraine conflict has opened in Serbia. The event is being hosted by world-renowned Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica.
’RT.Doc: The Age of Our Heroes’ kicked off on Friday in the Serbian village of Drvengrad in the west of the country. Drvengrad, also known as Kustendorf, was built by Kusturica as a film set two decades ago and has since become a venue for film and music festivals as well as a tourist landmark.
The festival, which runs through Sunday, features five new documentaries on the Ukraine conflict. One of them, filmed by Kusturica himself, will focus on the Kiev government’s relentless persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which it accuses of having ties to Russia. Others will offer insight into the fate of Mariupol residents who allegedly faced atrocities by Ukrainian troops, the history of Russophobia in Ukraine, and the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
In an interview with RT, Kusturica suggested that the festival would become a testament to the reality that “there are some places in the world where people feel solidarity” with Russia. “I’m really happy I could offer you a place… where you could see well-made documentaries,” he said.
Ekaterina Yakovleva, the festival’s general producer, praised Kusturica as a “genius” and “maestro” who provided indispensable assistance in making the event “cinematic and beautiful.”
While RT will present five documentaries in Drvengrad, 60 more will be shown, including those filmed by Russian war correspondents as well as Italian, French, and US crews.