The film "Russians at War" will still be shown at the Toronto Film Festival

A frame from the movie “Russians at War”

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Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) returned to the intention of showing the documentary film “Russians at War” Anastasia Trofimova. Despite the fact that the closing of the festival took place on Sunday, September 15, this week they plan to show the film that outraged the film community and ordinary Ukrainians.

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They intend to show the film “Russians at War”. on Tuesday, September 17. As reported on the TIFF website, screenings will take place at 2:00 PM and 6:30 PM.

In a message published on Sunday evening, the festival announced that tickets for screenings of Trofimova’s film are now available.

Last week, on September 12, TIFF announced the decision not to show the film “Russians at War” allegedly for security reasons.

At the time, the organizing committee stated that it was “forced to pause” the screenings of the film on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, “because it became known about significant threats to the activities of the festival and public safety.” However, they also noted that “the film deserves a place in the festival program” and the organizers want to premiere it “when it is safe.”

Toronto police later said that TIFF made his decision without any recommendations from law enforcement agencies.

Last Tuesday, September 10, when the film was shown for the media and industry representatives, a protest organized by Ukrainian public organizations took place. It was attended by officials, for example, Oleg Nikolenko, Consul General of Ukraine in Canada. In a letter to TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey Nikolenko called the inclusion of the film in the program “irresponsible”.

About the film “Russians at War”

“Russians at War” – a documentary by the Russian-Canadian director Anastasia Trofimova.

Trofimova was born in Moscow. She worked in the media for more than 10 years and participated in various documentary projects in Canada, the Balkans, the Middle East and Russia. Created a number of documentaries for the Russian propaganda media Russia Today.

The film “Russians at War” tells about how Trofimova spends seven months together with the Russian military in the occupied part of Ukraine. It does not show the destruction and deaths that the Russians inflict on Ukrainians, but depicts them as ordinary people.

One of the soldiers in the film denies allegations that Russian troops are committing war crimes. And Trofimova herself says that while she was creating the tape, she had not seen any such crime.

The world premiere of Trofimova’s film took place at the Venice Film Festival. Darya Bassel, programmer of the Docudays UA International Documentary Film Festival, watched it there. She emphasized that the film only seems to be an anti-war film, but in fact it is an example of high-quality Russian propaganda.

After the Venice premiere, Ukrainians in Toronto started protesting because the film was included in the program of the local film festival. Ukrainian diplomats, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and even the newly appointed Minister of Culture Mykola Tochytsky also reacted.