Protesters gather outside the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) screening of 'Russians at War', a documentary about Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, in Toronto on Sept. 10.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
Russians at War is a brave and exceptional documentary. It shows, unvarnished, the horrors of the war, including some of the most horrific footage you will ever see on a big screen.
Not that you’ll be able to see that footage on the big screen at the Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF has cancelled its screenings, after the receipt of threats indicating significant risk, it said in a statement on Thursday, a day before what was to be its North American public premiere. TIFF called it “an incredibly difficult decision.”
The cancellation follows TVO’s announcement earlier this week that it would no longer be supporting or airing the film, as well as criticism of the film voiced by some high-profile figures, including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. The producers of the film called it heartbreaking and “shockingly unCanadian” and are calling for an investigation.
While TIFF obviously must keep audiences safe, the anger around this film is unjustified. It is a cowardly move to work to suppress this courageous film. And it is a mistake.
This documentary in no way glorifies Russia or its army or its war effort. This film in no way demonizes Ukraine or its people.
Anastasia Trofimova’s film is a no-holds-barred reproach of war in general. It is a raw, unflinching documentation specifically of the war going on right now in Ukraine. You can feel the cold and the desperation as you watch. The bombed-out buildings in Ukraine, the Russian body bags. You can almost smell the death.
Propaganda? Please. Triumph of the Will this is not. This is eye-opening and gutting. The only “propaganda” this documentary serves up is an anti-war message that should be delivered as far and wide as possible. The experience of watching the film has something in common with war: you can’t wait for it to be over. It is excruciating.
It is extraordinary.
War has so many victims, and those victims include the young men – Russian and Ukrainian – sent out to the hell of the killing fields to fight battles for a power-hungry leader, Putin, who will never get anywhere near the front. These sons and husbands just want to be home with their girlfriends, wives, parents, pets. Their children. We meet these young men in this film. They are not monsters. They are human beings coerced into fighting a catastrophic war, led by a monstrous man. They just want it to end.
“While politicians work out who has the bigger balls, there will be many victims,” one Russian says. “It’s time to finish this, enough is enough. Let the enemy go home alive and well to their families, and us too.”
The feature film All Quiet on the Western Front, which also humanized the “wrong” side of the First World War with its devastating portrayal of a young German soldier’s experiences, won four Academy Awards last year, including best international feature film.
Russians at War, which dispels the myth that there is any glory involved in war whatsoever, deserves similar recognition. It certainly deserves a chance to be seen.
Of course, Russians is much more sensitive. It is a documentary to begin with, but also because this catastrophe is happening right now. It is bringing agony to Ukrainians at this very moment. Nobody should have to experience what Ukrainians are suffering through at the hands of Russia.
This film in no way discounts that. If anything, it emphasizes it.
It does not disregard the inhumanity of war to humanize the low-level members of the aggressor’s army: Russian soldiers and medics as young as 20 who are sent to the front lines along with their hopes and dreams – and their not-quite-yet-fully-developed prefrontal cortexes. The opposite, in fact.
Russian fighters – some drafted, some indoctrinated, some there to keep their families fed back home or a friend company at the front, some there because they don’t know why – are also victims of this war. As one notes in the film, they are at war with themselves. “Slavs against Slavs.”
Thousands and thousands of people, Ukrainian and Russian, have been ripped from their lives to further a madman’s dream.
And a talented filmmaker, without an official posting or even a press pass, followed them almost all the way to the front so that we could know about it. And be outraged. Not at the film; at the war.
Censoring art is never a good idea. But keeping this film under wraps is denying the public of more than the experience of seeing an excellent movie. It is restricting access to a vital message: an unforgiving indictment of war.
Peace.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify the author's view that Putin is the power-hungry leader for whom young men are fighting.