The film “Peaceful People” stirred up the Berlin Film Festival

Ukrainian film at the 74th Berlin Film Festival “Peaceful People” (Intercepted) director Oksana Karpovich received two special awards in the Forum competition program – from the Amnesty Award and from the Ecumenical Jury.

Almost immediately after the premiere of the film at the Berlinale, it appeared online response from the Russian film critic Kateryna Barabash, who writes from the festival for the Russian publication Republic.ru. Over the past few days, her thoughts and attempts to retell quotes from the film have been translated into Ukrainian and are being actively disseminated both in social networks and in the media space.

Elizaveta Sushko, film reviewer of UP.Kultura spoke with the director in Berlin to find out why dragging “good” Russian narratives into the Ukrainian media space is the first step on the way to dehumanization.

“Peaceful People” is a documentary edited from static footage that Oksana shot in Ukraine, moving from north to south and east and capturing the lives of civilians in the chaos left by the Russian army.

The counterpoint is the audio part of the film – intercepted telephone conversations of Russian soldiers with their families. Most often, women’s voices are heard from that side – wives and mothers who not only support the war, but also encourage their husbands to kill Ukrainians.

We started our conversation with Oksana immediately after one of the screenings of the film at the festival. And with a great deal of indignation, she started with the media coverage that the film is getting from the wrong source.

“This woman wrote a good post, even quoting the movie. Her post is originally in Russian, but hundreds of people in Ukraine and even the media spread it in automatic translation. Her quotes from memory are inaccurate, but I understand that this is all because she is not recorded them during the film. She mixed the dialogue intercepts between them. But what infuriates and shocks me is another thing, – says Oksana, – When ordinary people started spreading it, I thought, okay, I can understand the emotional state of our society, which wants to talk about such a film. But when the media began to spread it, I was outraged that it is still possible to work like this in our country. This is the first time in my life that media attention has been drawn to my project, and it hurts me that this is happening.”.

It is impossible to read the full review of the film critic for free, but both her post on Facebook and the beginning of the text in the publication sound like a supporting film and Ukrainian narratives of struggle. But today we are at the point of an electrified position regarding the issue of “good Russians” and information hygiene.

“I am saddened by the rhetoric our people are using when they choose to retweet her post about the movie without having seen it. Because unfortunately they are using the worst rhetoric our enemies are using. It is clear that we are in unspeakable pain and rage and I I support her. Because rage is a very productive emotion that promotes action. But how can we use the product of our enemy for thoughts? I want people not to do this, that’s why I made a film where Russians speak for themselves.”– says the director.

The rhetoric of the enemy is making its way and taking root in our society more and more deeply in other areas, in particular, in radical positions against the LGBTQ+ community. One of the frequently repeated narratives in the intercepts is the opinion of Russians about “Geiropa”, statements about Ukrainians as “underdogs” and other words unpleasant to European ears. After the recent pickets against the film “Lessons of Tolerance” in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Chernivtsi, we did not miss this topic with Oksana Karpovych.

“Calling Russians “scumbags” and “inhumans” we only drag into our lives what the Russians say about us. And they use them in the film and hear it there.”

It is currently unknown when the film will be available in Ukraine, but Oksana shares her thoughts on the future reaction of the Ukrainian audience already today:

“When I was working on the film, my psychotherapist supported me all the time. And we periodically held sessions with her. Once she asked me how I wanted Ukrainians to react to the film. At that time, I was already observing such a phenomenon in our society , as a hunt for those who had ever worked with the Russians. It made me sad because we were looking within society for someone to punish. My film is a lesson for our society about how not to become Russians, which means resisting totalitarianism, homophobia and everything that our enemy is so saturated with.

“Peaceful People” – this is a story of dehumanization that begins not in war, but in Russia, in their society through propaganda. And I think that one of our tasks is to fight against the Russians – it is not to become Russians. And not to lose our humanity. And I’m sorry that what I see now is, unfortunately, very unfortunate. And this is coming from people who haven’t even seen the movie yet.”