‘Russians at War’. A film about Russian soldiers was showcased at the Venice Film Festival

At the Venice Film Festival, a documentary titled Russians at War was screened, directed by Anastasia Trofimova, a Russian now living in Canada. She claims to have spent seven months on the front lines.

The director states that, while Russian soldiers are depicted as heroes in Russian media and as murderers and rapists in Western outlets, she saw them as ordinary people.

In the film, Russian soldiers express varying thoughts about the war. Some say they joined for money, while others cite patriotism. One of the soldiers featured is Ukrainian but fights for Russia, claiming that a civil war began in Ukraine in 2014 and that Ukrainians bombed the eastern regions. Another soldier believes he is fighting Nazis in Ukraine.

Some of the Russian soldiers shown in the film talk about the senselessness of the war and express their desire for it to end quickly. A Russian military medic, Anchar, says in the film:

“Why are the boys dying? I don’t know. Our great-grandchildren will know about this war. What will they think about all this crap? This war, f**k, is ruining everything. But as long as our boys are here, I won’t leave. How can I abandon them?”

The screening of the film at the festival drew harsh criticism from Ukrainian authorities.

“Very interesting, why was the propaganda film Russians at War even shown at the Venice Film Festival? And why are director Anastasia Trofimova and some other Russian cultural figures — from a country that kills Ukrainians and our children daily — allowed to work in the civilized world at all? This is disgraceful,” wrote Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

His advisor, Daria Zarivna, commented on the film, saying: “The screening of the film Russians at War at the Venice Film Festival is a shameful act of propaganda, aimed at trying to justify Russian soldiers who are directly responsible for crimes against the Ukrainian people. Instead of exposing the truth about the atrocities they commit daily, the director tries to portray them as ‘regular guys with a sense of humor.’ This is a blatant concealment of war crimes and an attempt to blur the line between victim and aggressor.”

Well-known Ukrainian producer Alexander Rodnyansky stated that the Russian soldiers in the film are “humanized.”

“Sometimes it seems like the film was commissioned by smart officials from the Russian Ministry of Defense or the FSB. Despite the filmmaker’s understanding of the nature of aggression, the Russian soldiers are humanized in the film,” Rodnyansky said.

In response to these criticisms, Trofimova said: “I don’t really understand — are we supposed to dehumanize them? I think right now, we shouldn’t be choosing any side. If you’re choosing a side, you’re for the war. You’re either for the war on this side or that side. But I’m for peace. And I would like us to see each other as humans.”