A new documentary portraying the lives of Russian soldiers near the Ukrainian frontlines has faced fierce criticism for attempting to whitewash Moscow’s war crimes.
Russians at War, directed by the Russian-Canadian film-maker Anastasia Trofimova, chronicles seven months spent embedded with a Russian army battalion in eastern Ukraine, presenting itself as a unique window into the daily lives of Russian soldiers.
In the film, which premiered at the Venice film festival last week, young soldiers are portrayed grappling with the purpose of their fight. Their motivations to join Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine vary from financial reasons to a sense of camaraderie.
“It’s so confusing here, I don’t even know what we’re fighting for,” says one soldier, a sentiment shared by others, who are largely portrayed in a sympathetic light.
But Russians at War appears to offer only brief glimpses of combat and critics say it provides no insight into the mass-scale destruction caused by Moscow’s forces in Ukraine since February 2022.
Throughout the two-and-a-half years of full-scale war, Russia has targeted civilian sites, while multiple UN investigations have documented evidence of “indiscriminate attacks” and war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine, including rape and the deportation of children to Russia.
On Friday, CNN published drone footage filmed during fighting in August near the embattled city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, showing an apparent execution by Russian troops of three surrendering Ukrainians, the latest in a series of gruesome clips to emerge.
When asked at a press conference in Venice about Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Trofimova said the soldiers she lived with for seven months were “absolutely ordinary guys” and claimed she saw no signs of war crimes during her time near the front.
“I understand that there are many reports of war crimes and pretty much, I think in western media, that’s what Russian soldiers are associated with at this point, because there were no other stories. This is another story, and this was the reality that they lived,” the director said. “If there were war crimes committed, obviously you would see them on screen, but in the seven months that I was there, that was not my experience … it’s important to show other stories.”
The documentary screening and Trofimova’s subsequent comments sparked an immediate backlash from Ukraine’s artistic community.
Ukrainian producer Darya Bassel, whose documentary Songs of Slow Burning Earth depicting the suffering of Ukraine also premiered at Venice, criticised the decision to screen the Russian film, saying it “presents a very distorted picture of reality, spreading false narratives”.
“We can only be happy for her [Trofimova] that she was fortunate enough not to witness any war crimes. Unfortunately, thousands of Ukrainians have not been so lucky,” Bassel wrote in a critical post on Facebook after attending a screening.
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The documentary is likely to prompt a debate over the ethics of filming inside Russia and the territories under Russian occupation. Unlike in Ukraine, where foreign reporters can travel to the frontlines, Russia has largely prohibited such access to independent journalists, only occasionally permitting select ones to join tightly controlled press tours.
Trofimova defended her decision to make the film, telling journalists in Venice: “There was a missing element: the human face of those people involved in the war.
“The point of view of Russian soldiers is not usually heard and I think it’s so important to see through the fog of the war: to see the tragedy that the war is and to see people for people, outside politicians’ black-and-white reasoning and war propaganda.”
But Bassel, along with other prominent Ukrainian cultural figures, criticised the documentary for distorting the portrayal of Russian soldiers. They argued that it neglects their responsibility, portraying them as “victims” rather than active participants in the war.“It is important to remember that these individuals joined the army that invaded an independent country, many of them willingly,” Bassel said.
“Are their crimes any less significant simply because they claim to be unaware of why they are involved in this war?”