Documentary ‘Russians at War’ Sparks Protest, Heated Debate in Toronto

Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova has responded to a protest at the Toronto Film Festival on Tuesday against her controversial Russians at War documentary ahead of a North American premiere on Friday.

Trofimova tells The Hollywood Reporter her first-person film has 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.

“Because of the geo-political climate that exists, these guys [Russian soldiers] just wanted to share with someone. Yes, I went there and no one else has,” she explains. Her comments follow the Ukrainian Canadian community protesting the Toronto Film Festival giving Trofimova’s film a North American premiere on Friday after a world premiere in Venice.

Around 400 Ukrainian Torontonians gathered outside TIFF Lightbox, the headquarters of the major film festival. They held signs that read “‘Russians at War’ Justifies and Victimizes Killers and Rapists” and “Hello TIFF?! Russian Propaganda Kills.”

Controversy around the film first emerged at the Venice Film Festival, where the film had its world premiere. Trofimova sparked backlash after the film’s press conference on the Lido when she defended the film, which she made while embedded with a Russian army battalion in Eastern Ukraine while making the film.

Darya Bassel, a Ukrainian producer attending Venice with her own documentary, Songs of Slow Burning Earth, to Facebook to decry Trofimova’s doc: “This film may mislead you into believing that it is an anti-war film, one that questions the current regime in Russia. However, what I witnessed is a prime example of pure Russian propaganda,” she wrote in a lengthy post.

A spokesperson for TIFF offered no comment when asked about Russians at War playing at the festival amid the protest. Ann Semotiuk, who is on the board of directors of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress in Toronto, told The Hollywood Reporter that Trofimova has overlooked alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine in her film.

“Although the director stated she wanted to present a different perspective of the film, she took the perspective of totally ignoring the fact that Russia was committing war crimes in Ukraine, she ignored the fact that Russia was an aggressor that invaded a sovereign, independent, democratic and peaceful neighbor for no reason other than their own imperialist plan,” Semotiuk argued.

Cornelia Principe, a producer of Russians at War, rejected the accusation that Trofimova had ignored Russian war crimes. “There’s no white-washing of anything. It’s focusing on these individuals. It could be that, just empathizing with a soldier who happens to be Russian, is that whitewashing?” she questioned.

But Semotiuk, while insisting she wasn’t against independent war journalism, objected to the Russians at War documentary ignoring the Ukrainian perspective. Trofimova insists her film was not meant to cover the entire Russia-Ukraine conflict. “It’s very rare that journalists could even go and work on both sides of the front. That’s almost impossible. I would not even be able to get to the Ukrainian side to film there. They know that well,” she insisted.

The Canadian-Ukrainian protest on Tuesday coincided with the first press and industry screening of Russians at War. The Ukrainian Canadians said they will return on Friday to protest the first public screening at the Scotiabank Theatre.

Ukrainian Consul General Oleh Nikolenko in a Sept. 5 letter to TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said it was “irresponsible to allow the Toronto International Film Festival, one of the most reputable world film stages, to be used to whitewash the responsibility of Russian soldiers committing war crimes in Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion.”

Also Tuesday, Deputy Canadian Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is of Ukrainian background, expressed during a press conference in Ottawa concerns over TIFF screening Russians at War. “Ukrainian diplomats and the Ukrainian Canadian community have expressed really grave concerns about that film, and I do want to say I share those concerns,” Freeland said.

Producer Principe says the friday public screening of Russians at War is still on: “TIFF has been very supportive. All of our funders have been very supportive. So there’s no change whatsoever.”

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress also objected that the Canadian Media Fund and other domestic indie film financiers offered public money to produce Russians at War. Canada’s deputy PM Freeland agreed with that criticism when telling reporters on Tuesday: “It’s not right for Canadian public money to be supporting the screening and production of a film like this.”