Movie Ukraine’s front-line filmmakers call for boycott of Russian “cultural propaganda” and lowering of the Iron Curtain around Russia

A number of notable Ukrainian filmmakers are calling for a boycott of Russian culture. According to them, the boycott is “an attempt to cleanse the world of terrorist state propaganda”. says The Guardian.

Seven filmmakers, among others Roman Bondarchuk, Nariman Aliev, Alina Gorlova and Valentyn Vasyanovych, have each issued a statement supporting the boycott. At the same time, they criticize Russian filmmakers who do not oppose Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Vasjanovychby the movie Atlantis premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019, calls for an iron culture curtain to be lowered around Russia.

“It is essential to end all cultural cooperation with representatives of a terrorist country that threatens to destroy the entire world. We must stop all communication with those directors who still live in the Soviet paradigm and support the messages poisoned by imperialist ideology in a civilized world, ”Vasjanovych writes.

Bondarchuk directly criticizes Russian soprano Anna Netrebkoawhich has not publicly agreed to condemn Vladimir Putin act. Because of this, Netrebko was fired from the New York Metropolitan Opera.

Read more: Metropolitan cancels cooperation with Putin’s supporters: Russian stellar soprano Anna Netrebko does not want to take a political stand

According to Bondarchuk, Ukrainians need help to defend their freedom, and therefore the influence of Russian culture in the world must be limited.

“That culture prepared the ideological basis for this war,” Bondarchuk says.

According to Aliev, Russian culture has always been a means of making the crimes of the authorities look legal.

Previously a full-scale boycott of Russian films has been called for by the film director Oleg Sentsov and producer Denis Ivanov. Sentsov was sentenced in Russia to five years in prison for participating in a protest against the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

According to The Guardian, the Ukrainian filmmakers who signed the claim are currently in Ukraine and many of them have volunteered to defend their homeland.

Also in the world has aroused the distress of Ukrainian filmmakers.

According to Dagens Nyheter The recently established Emergency Fund for Filmmakers is helping filmmakers who are in danger and fleeing the Ukrainian war. The money has been raised from several large German film funds, among others, but more donations are being asked.

The purpose of the crisis fund is to distribute grants to enable filmmakers to cover, for example, removal and visa costs.

Behind the crisis fund is The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, which includes the IDFA International Documentary Film Festival, the Rotterdam International Film Festival and the European Film Academy.