Ukrainian filmmakers called on the festival in Amsterdam to abandon Russian films

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International Festival of Documentary Films on Human Rights Docudays UA urged the organizers of the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam IDFA to revise its position regarding the presence of films of Russian production and authorship in the program.

This is stated in an open letter that the Docudays UA team sent to the IDFA organizers.

The appeal was signed by more than thirty Ukrainian figures in the field of cinema. Among them: the executive director of the NGO “Dokudayz” Svitlana Smaldirector Hope Parfanfilm critic Serhii Trimbachco-founder of the Ukrainian Film Academy Julia Sinkevichdirector Maryna Stepanska etc. It also lists the names of representatives of the film industry who died as a result of Russian aggression: Volodymyr Chorny, Pavlo Lee, Oleksiy Khilskyi, Viktor Onysk, Oksana Shvets and many others.

“Thanking you sincerely for your solidarity, we still want to express our disappointment and serious concern about the presence of films of Russian production and authorship in the programs of your festival“, the letter says.

Read also: Criticism of everything Russian is not decolonization. Notes from a discussion at the Museum of Theater Arts

It is also noted there that for a long time, representatives of the Ukrainian film community have been calling on international platforms to suspend any cooperation with the figures of the Russian cultural sector until the Russian troops leave the territory of Ukraine.

“One of the important reasons for this appeal is that the cultural and artistic representation of Russia on international platforms is used by the Russian propaganda machine to legitimize war crimes committed against Ukraine in the eyes of the Russian population.“, the authors of the appeal explain.

They note that providing international platforms to representatives of the Russian cultural sector “significantly reduces the nature of the Russian-Ukrainian war and responsibility for it.” “The need for voices critical of the Putin regime is inside Russia, not outside“, the signatories of the letter emphasized.

Photo: IDFA / Facebook

It gives an example of a Russian film included in the IDFA 2023 program – in it the authors say that the war in Ukraine began in 2022: “One of the examples, a demonstrative illustration of our theses, can be found in the very Russian-made film included in your Envision Competition program. In the synopsis, the creative team of the film Mud claims that the war in Ukraine has been ongoing only since 2022: “It is October 2022, and the war in Ukraine has been underway for seven months.” This is a cynical thesis from the representatives of the country that launched a war against Ukraine in 2014, occupying Crimea, starting hostilities in the eastern regions, setting up infiltration camps and torture camps, and killing hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine in these almost nine years. half a year“.

Therefore, the authors of the appeal called on the festival to rethink the policy of inviting films of Russian production and authorship.

Ukrainian cinema at IDFA 2023

For the first time in history, the IDFA International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam will be opened by a Ukrainian film. The world premiere of the film will take place on November 8 during the 36th film festival “Memory Photo” directors Olga Chernykh.

“The Ukrainian film “Photo for memory” by Olga Chernykh became the opening film of IDFA – the largest documentary film festival in the world. This is the first time in the 36-year history of the festival that a Ukrainian film will open the film event. Although, in general, the Ukrainian doc is shown quite often in various IDFA programs“, one of the producers Oleksiy Gladushevsky reported earlier.

Photo: Olexo Gladushevskyy / Facebook

Chernykh’s film was also selected for participation in the Envision competition program, which collects innovative and experimental works.

“Photo for memory” tells about the director’s family, her experience of forced relocation from temporarily occupied Donetsk and the new round of the war, which finds her in Kyiv.

In total, seven tapes related to Ukraine were announced in various IDFA 2023 programs.

Read also: Two Ukrainian films have been nominated for the European Film Academy Award

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