"Russians At War" (split from bought & paid for media)

[The Bread Guy]

Torn re: where to put this (here? gov't of the day? UKR thread?), so putting it here since it's dealing with the Canada Media Fund. This from a UKR Canadian lobby group ....

Why is Canadian taxpayer money being used to fund Russian propaganda? - The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) official website

The Canadian Government says it is very concerned about the influence of Russian propaganda.

www.ucc.ca

... and a bit of MSM coverage

Ukrainian officials call for documentary on Russian soldiers to be removed from TIFF

Ukraine’s consul-general is urging a Toronto International Film Festival chief executive to withdraw ‘Russians at War’ from the festival’s schedule

www.theglobeandmail.com

Russian documentary accused of falsely showing invading soldiers as ‘victims’

Anastasia Trofimova’s film Russians at War criticised for ‘distorted picture of reality’ in Ukraine after Venice premiere

www.theguardian.com

Film Shown At Venice Festival Blasted As 'Russian Propaganda'

The top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and a group that represents Ukrainians living in Canadian have sharply criticized the showing of the film Russians At War at the Venice Film Festival, calling it Russian propaganda.

www.rferl.org

Archived link to Globe & Mail article here in case previous link doesn't work.

Sparks flying in Venice as well over the same flick ....

Documentary sympathetic to Russian soldiers sparks anger in Venice

Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova has defended her film 'Russians at War' as an "attempt to see through the fog of war".

www.euronews.com

‘Russians at War’: Documentary About Russian Troops in Ukraine Criticized at Venice Film Fest - The Moscow Times

“All this must be filmed,” director Anastasia Trofimova said to explain why she began filming “Russians at War.” The documentary was presented in the category of "Out of Competition" at the 81st Venice Film Festival.

www.themoscowtimes.com

Director Of ‘Russians At War’ Doc Bats Back Suggestions Of Whitewashing: “We Have To Humanize Everyone. This Is A Huge Tragedy For Our Region” – Venice

Anastasia Trofimova embedded with a Russian army battalion for doc giving rare insight into lives of Russian troops in Ukraine

deadline.com

TIFF's listing of the flick ....

Russians at War

Russian Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova’s gripping first-person documentary takes us beyond the headlines to join Russian soldiers in Ukraine placing themselves in a battle for reasons that become only more obscure with each gruelling day.

tiff.net

... as well as TVO's statement (they apparently threw a few bucks into the hat, too) ...

TVO statement on ‘Russians at War’ documentary | TVO Media Education Group

“TVO Media Education Group (TVO) acknowledges the public conversation taking place about the documentary, Russians at War, which premiered at the Venice

tvo.me

... and a UKR lobby group's response to TVO's statement

UCC responds to TVO statement on Russian propaganda film - The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) official website

Yesterday TVO issued a statement attempting to excuse their funding of the Russian propaganda film Russians at War. The following is the UCC's response:

www.ucc.ca

 

[The Bread Guy]

Split this from the media thread because there's enough stand-alone-ishness to merit discussion here.

Some of the latest from this week on this flick, supported ...

'Russians at War' team on 'shocking' backlash to film and direct-to-audience release

Anastasia Trofimova risked her life to make “Russians at War” — and then spent the next year fighting to have the film shown.

www.thecanadianpressnews.ca

Globe & Mail film review: "A year after controversial TIFF premiere, Russians at War deserves to be seen" (archived link also here)

One interesting take from a writer I respect reviewing in the Toronto Star last year (also archived here) ....

... to fully understand “Russians at War,” you must appreciate that it is neither documentary nor propaganda: It is Kino-Pravda, ‘film truth,’ a style pioneered by Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov. Kino-Pravda sought to replace art and romanticism in cinema with scenes of real people living out the noble mundaneness of life ... (the film) purports to break through the propaganda of Moscow’s brutal war, but instead it wallows in it ... after watching the film and speaking to Trofimova, I’m here to tell you that the truth lies in between: It is not propaganda, but it is informed by it. It is anti-war, but not pro-peace ...

So far, available for online rental (a bit over 2 hours long) here ...

Russians at War | 2025 Documentary Film

Watch Now on VOD | Without authorization, a filmmaker embeds with a Russian battalion in Eastern Ukraine.

www.russiansatwar.com

... and I'm toying with spending the $6 to watch it, torn between 1) watching what a lot of folks call Russian propaganda (including some who haven't watched it yet), and 2) being able to learn about an adversary even from consuming propaganda.

I'm curious re: whether USSR 2.0'll ban it - in spite of UKR lobbyists and CAN politicians saying "WTF!". RUS not wanting it in the eyes of the unwashed masses'll tell me something, too The producer says they'll make available for free to people streaming from RUS, BLR and UKR - tried via a pro-USSR 2.0 VPN IP, and the streaming site still gets thru - for now.

Wiki page (usual GIGO caveats for Wikipedia) here:

Russians at War - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Good2Golf]

If for nothing other than the pure intel value, it should have been premiered without delay…

It seems it’s human nature to mistake subject for perspective/position.

 

[The Bread Guy]

If for nothing other than the pure intel value, it should have been premiered without delay…

Not how UKR lobbyists and Canadian critics of TVO's funding of the project seem to see it, but it is an interesting back-and-forth.

It seems it’s human nature to mistake subject for perspective/position.

Sometimes, like a lot of political things, all in the eye of the beholder/Rorschachian, right?

 

[CBH99]

Split this from the media thread because there's enough stand-alone-ishness to merit discussion here.

Some of the latest from this week on this flick, supported ...

'Russians at War' team on 'shocking' backlash to film and direct-to-audience release

Anastasia Trofimova risked her life to make “Russians at War” — and then spent the next year fighting to have the film shown.

www.thecanadianpressnews.ca

Globe & Mail film review: "A year after controversial TIFF premiere, Russians at War deserves to be seen" (archived link also here)

One interesting take from a writer I respect reviewing in the Toronto Star last year (also archived here) ....


So far, available for online rental (a bit over 2 hours long) here ...

Russians at War | 2025 Documentary Film

Watch Now on VOD | Without authorization, a filmmaker embeds with a Russian battalion in Eastern Ukraine.

www.russiansatwar.com

... and I'm toying with spending the $6 to watch it, torn between 1) watching what a lot of folks call Russian propaganda (including some who haven't watched it yet), and 2) being able to learn about an adversary even from consuming propaganda.

I'm curious re: whether USSR 2.0'll ban it - in spite of UKR lobbyists and CAN politicians saying "WTF!". RUS not wanting it in the eyes of the unwashed masses'll tell me something, too The producer says they'll make available for free to people streaming from RUS, BLR and UKR - tried via a pro-USSR 2.0 VPN IP, and the streaming site still gets thru - for now.

Wiki page (usual GIGO caveats for Wikipedia) here:

Russians at War - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I watched the trailer last year, and it looked very much worth watching.

If it's a waste of time & biased, then so be it...but we won't know until we watch it.

I have a feeling it will be very informative though, and if nothing else will hopefully humanize both sides & help jolt some populations into demanding this war end soon.

 

[The Bread Guy]

... I have a feeling it will be very informative though, and if nothing else will hopefully humanize both sides & help jolt some populations into demanding this war end soon.

Short answer on that bit in yellow: after wrestling back and forth, I spent the $6 to view the film online here ...

Russians at War | 2025 Documentary Film

Watch Now on VOD | Without authorization, a filmmaker embeds with a Russian battalion in Eastern Ukraine.

www.russiansatwar.com

... I can tell you, in 2+ hours, the only time it sorta-kinda "humanizes" the Ukrainians (in a quite backhanded, almost imperialist/colonial way) is with statements approximating "Russians and Ukrainians used to get together like brothers - why's it gotta be this way?"

In more detail about the whole flick ...

On a micro level, it's an interesting, granular look at how some Russian units are working through fighting the war. Most of the time is spent with guys with support units, with scenes of medical units going to forward collection points to collect 200's and 300's (dead and wounded, in the Russian code of the time), and one scene washing out an AFV after a mine strike. Lots of examples of how fucked up, chaotic and informationally foggy things can be closer to the front end of the fight. I'm guessing people way smarter than me could pick up a thing or two watching this that could help the fight on the UKR side.

On the macro level, the biggest flag for me is that as of this post, I haven't found any open-source information showing that 1) the film's been banned in USSR 2.0, or 2) sanctions any consequence, administrative or criminal, have been levied by RUS against the key players involved in producing the film. It's hard for me to call it "propaganda" proper because it makes the Moscow Machine look like it doesn't GAF about the troops, but overall, that doesn't leave the Propaganda Dial at 0 out of 10, either.

The producer asks one troopie about RUS war crimes, and the young kid says he doesn't think that sort of shit could happen. Still a ton of "the Ukrainians were bombing their own people back in 2014" narrative here and there, as well as a lot of sentiment about going back to the old days of "everyone's part of one unity" thing, with nobody really saying that UKR may have a point about being upset at being invaded.

My general emotional/info-ops take away from this film is that I can see UKR and pro-UKR folks not wanting people to see this because it makes the people who are bombing UKR cities & hospitals, or kidnapping UKR kids and shipping them off to RUS, look like just guys that are getting fucked over by "the man." Should it be banned? Generally speaking, I don't think so, but I also understand that if someone JUST sees this, without knowing more detailed background and history, it would be easy for them to come away feeling sorry for Team Russia's troops (even if maybe not necessarily for Team Russia).

Is it worth spending the $6 to view online? I'm glad I did, and if it was on DVD, I'd buy a copy to watch in more detail, especially the array of "morale badges" all over (with more than one with a USSR hammer-and-sickle motif - and a number of the lads wearing patches on their hats and uniforms saying, "What you are loaded with is what you will shoot" in Russian).

On the whole, "hey, you're funding a movie that makes the Russians look like nice guys, with their getting engaged to the medic in the field, and taking care of dogs and cats shit while their buddies were the Butchers of Bucha," thing, during the Cold War, folks (myself included) used to read a lot of what the other side had to write - may have been bullshit, but always something to be gleaned.

Don't be surprised if I come back and add to this as I let it stew in my head a bit more

 

[daftandbarmy]

Short answer on that bit in yellow: after wrestling back and forth, I spent the $6 to view the film online here ...

Russians at War | 2025 Documentary Film

Watch Now on VOD | Without authorization, a filmmaker embeds with a Russian battalion in Eastern Ukraine.

www.russiansatwar.com

... I can tell you, in 2+ hours, the only time it sorta-kinda "humanizes" the Ukrainians (in a quite backhanded, almost imperialist/colonial way) is with statements approximating "Russians and Ukrainians used to get together like brothers - why's it gotta be this way?"

In more detail about the whole flick ...

On a micro level, it's an interesting, granular look at how some Russian units are working through fighting the war. Most of the time is spent with guys with support units, with scenes of medical units going to forward collection points to collect 200's and 300's (dead and wounded, in the Russian code of the time), and one scene washing out an AFV after a mine strike. Lots of examples of how fucked up, chaotic and informationally foggy things can be closer to the front end of the fight. I'm guessing people way smarter than me could pick up a thing or two watching this that could help the fight on the UKR side.

On the macro level, the biggest flag for me is that as of this post, I haven't found any open-source information showing that 1) the film's been banned in USSR 2.0, or 2) sanctions any consequence, administrative or criminal, have been levied by RUS against the key players involved in producing the film. It's hard for me to call it "propaganda" proper because it makes the Moscow Machine look like it doesn't GAF about the troops, but overall, that doesn't leave the Propaganda Dial at 0 out of 10, either.

The producer asks one troopie about RUS war crimes, and the young kid says he doesn't think that sort of shit could happen. Still a ton of "the Ukrainians were bombing their own people back in 2014" narrative here and there, as well as a lot of sentiment about going back to the old days of "everyone's part of one unity" thing, with nobody really saying that UKR may have a point about being upset at being invaded.

My general emotional/info-ops take away from this film is that I can see UKR and pro-UKR folks not wanting people to see this because it makes the people who are bombing UKR cities & hospitals, or kidnapping UKR kids and shipping them off to RUS, look like just guys that are getting fucked over by "the man." Should it be banned? Generally speaking, I don't think so, but I also understand that if someone JUST sees this, without knowing more detailed background and history, it would be easy for them to come away feeling sorry for Team Russia's troops (even if maybe not necessarily for Team Russia).

Is it worth spending the $6 to view online? I'm glad I did, and if it was on DVD, I'd buy a copy to watch in more detail, especially the array of "morale badges" all over (with more than one with a USSR hammer-and-sickle motif - and a number of the lads wearing patches on their hats and uniforms saying, "What you are loaded with is what you will shoot" in Russian).

On the whole, "hey, you're funding a movie that makes the Russians look like nice guys, with their getting engaged to the medic in the field, and taking care of dogs and cats shit while their buddies were the Butchers of Bucha," thing, during the Cold War, folks (myself included) used to read a lot of what the other side had to write - may have been bullshit, but always something to be gleaned.

Don't be surprised if I come back and add to this as I let it stew in my head a bit more

Hemingway cheers ...