Dear colleagues,

As your long-term partners, we wish first of all to express our gratitude for your solidarity and steadfast support which the Ukrainian film community has felt in our most difficult moments. Especially during the full-scale war launched by Russia against Ukraine.

We sincerely and highly value the direct financial aid received by dozens of Ukrainian filmmakers during the extremely hard year of 2022 and which, largely thanks to IDFA’s efforts, was provided by ICFR.

We are grateful for the fact that the team of IDFA Bertha Fund not only supported a significant number of Ukrainian film projects at the stages of their development and production, but also additionally, despite complicated logistic circumstances, provided extra opportunities to Ukrainian film managers and graciously invited a delegation of Ukrainian film curators in 2022 — specialists who directly work to shape meanings at festivals, establish and grow international connections, build bridges between Ukrainian and global cinema.

This help and this support are impossible to overestimate and will never be forgotten by us.

We also want to express our admiration for the presence of a Ukrainian component in your festival’s programme this year as well. A Ukrainian film will open the biggest documentary film festival in the world, Ukrainian films have been added to the treasures of Best of Fest and other film and industry programmes.

Being seen and heard is the goal of the struggle of every culture that has been under the colonizing oppression of an empire for a long time. This applies to Ukraine as well. And deconstruction of imperial narratives regarding oppressed nations in this process is not just one of the tools of struggle for former colonies but also an urgent need for the entire global community. This deconstruction is a direct prerequisite for responsibility for war crimes and global security, and the global order which we are all going to work out together for our future depends on it.

Dear colleagues, this is why, while we sincerely thank you for your solidarity, we still wish to express our disappointment and serious concern about the presence of films made in Russia and by Russian authors in the programmes of your festival.

For a long time, we and many other members of the Ukrainian film community have been communicating at many international platforms, including IDFA, our calls to stop any collaboration with figures from the Russian cultural sector until Russian troops leave the Ukrainian territory in its internationally recognized borders.

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

In addition, the decision to provide space on international platforms for representatives of the Russian cultural sector, which is based on the desire to support voices that are critical of Putin’s regime, significantly reduces the nature of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the scope of responsibility for it.

One important lesson of the 20th century, which Hannah Arendt encouraged us to learn, is that no dictatorship justifies or excuses the responsibility of broader masses for their compliance with war crimes committed by their state.

So no dictatorship justifies or excuses the responsibility of Russia’s broader masses for their compliance with war crimes committed not only by the Kremlin, but also by Russian citizens. The need for voices that are critical of Putin’s regime exists within Russia, not outside of it.

No dictatorship justifies or excuses the responsibility for the circulation of chauvinist, imperialist policies in Russian society. The chauvinist policies which existed before the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, which was not made sense of by the members of the Russian cultural sector after 2014, and has still not been problematized by them in the overwhelming majority of the artworks in question, particularly in the films which have been presented on international platforms during 2022–2023 under the premise of supporting critical voices. Cultural managers and artists, people responsible for shaping meanings and problematic fields in society, do not problematize the need to deconstruct the imperial modus of their country’s existence in Russia. Instead, they continue to look for a justification for their sociocultural collapse in the Putinist dictatorship.

To continue providing space on international platforms to members of the Russian cultural sector who are critical of the Putinist regime means to unwittingly reinforce their confidence in the belief that Putin’s dictatorship is the only root of the Russian-Ukrainian war. And therefore to significantly circumscribe responsibility for the war.

You can find an example of this, a telling illustration of our statements, in the very Russian-made film included in your Envision Competition programme. In its synopsis, the creative team of Mud claims that the war in Ukraine has only been underway since 2022: “It is October 2022, and the war in Ukraine has been underway for seven months.” This is a cynical claim from representatives of the country that started a war against Ukraine in 2014 by occupying Crimea, launching military action in eastern regions, organizing filtration camps and torture facilities, and killing hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine in these nearly nine and a half years. This cynical claim continues the propaganda narratives of the Kremlin about Ukraine, the narratives of whataboutism, of “protecting the Russian-speaking population in Donetsk and Luhansk,” of “the referendum in Crimea.” We believe that words have significance, and precision in wording is a primary responsibility which cultural actors cannot be relieved of by any dictatorship.

Finally, to continue providing space for representatives of the Russian cultural sector on international platforms means to normalize the unequal circumstances in which filmmakers in Russia and Ukraine live and work today. In 2022–2023 only, the Ukrainian film community has lost dozens of our colleagues. The number of Ukrainian filmmakers who are currently members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is difficult to count. Even we, Docudays UA, have colleagues in our team who have had to swap films for weapons since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Continuing to create films is an extremely difficult process for the Ukrainian film community today due to loss of professionals, due to constant physical destruction of infrastructure by bombing. Preserving Ukrainian filmmaking and Ukraine’s cultural sector is a critical matter of Ukraine’s actual survival as a country in its struggle against the empire which seeks to physically and symbolically destroy its independence and colonize it. These conditions can hardly be compared to the conditions which Russian filmmakers currently work in. So we see an ethical problem in giving space to representatives of the Russian cultural field (particularly filmmaking) on international platforms until Russian troops withdraw from the entire territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.

Here are the names of Ukrainian film professionals who have died in 2022–2023 from the Russian war against Ukraine:

Viktor Onysko, film editor

Pavlo Li, actor

Volodymyr Strokan, stunt actor and actor

Oleksandr Suvorov, pyrotechnic stunt director

Anton Prasolenko, actor

Dmytro Kravets, director, writer

Mykyta Kalembet, lecturer, screenwriter, director

Oleh Bobalo, director

Yevhen Svitlychnyi, actor

Alexei Hilsky, actor

Filip Vinner, actor

Denis Bondarev, stunt actor, stunt director, actor

Vasyl Dovgan, production designer, location manager

Andriy Tkhoruk, art director, video designer

Oleh Zaitsev, actor

Tymofiy Boyko, production designer

Volodymyr Chornyi, movie set designer, decorative artist

Andriy Maksymenko, filmmaker, screenwriter

Maksym Shvartsman, cameraman

Ivan Shulha, sound producer

Kostiantyn Hnitetskyi, videographer

Roman Nezhyborets, video engineer

Yuriy Oliynyk, videographer

Oleksiy Yurchenko, cameraman

Serhiy Sylkin, video technician

Dmytro Shypovsky, cameraman

Pavlo Tymoshenko, cameraman

Andriy Boyko, cameraman

Oleksiy Olkhovyk, cameraman

Ivan Kuzminskyi, musicologist and TV director

Jaroslav Garkavko, actor, TV anchor, comedian

Roman Ivanenko, actor, comedian

Vasyl Yavorskyi, TV director

Roman Zhuk, photographer, videographer

Kostyantyn Kits, cameraman

Ilia Chernilevsky, voice actor

Vasyl Dovbnya, actor, comedian

Oksana Shvets, actress

Yevhen Osiievskyi, journalist, cultural observer

Valerіy Senko, video editor, Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival

Maksym Ostiak, musician, performer, actor, protagonist of the film Reve ta Stohne on Tour (2016)

This list is not exhaustive and does not name all the victims of the war in the film community as of today.

We encourage you to reconsider the policy of inviting films made in Russia and by Russians. And we believe that we will find an attentive interlocutor about this complex issue in your team. Because IDFA has already demonstrated your leadership in the ability to respond to changes in the world order which are happening during our lifetime.

We want to reiterate a thesis which we already articulated last year. Given the need to deconstruct Russia’s imperialist policies in the Eastern European region, the cinematic interests and diversity of Eastern European countries can be best preserved and revealed from the perspective of the festival managers and film curators who have direct experience of working with film institutions and festivals and who come from these countries.

So, just like last year, today we express our readiness to facilitate the expansion of professional connections, particularly with Ukrainian film curators who can provide expert consultations about the cinema of Eastern European countries in view of the need to deconstruct Russia’s imperialist policies in this region.

With respect and sincere hope for dialogue,

Svitlana Smal, Executive Director of NGO Docudays, and the team of the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival

Signatories:

Nadia Parfan, director, producer, curator, founder of Takflix.com online-platform

Bohdan Zhuk, programmer, Kyiv IFF Molodist, Director, SUNNY BUNNY LGBTQIA+ film festival, EFA member

Viktor Hlon, programmer for the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival

Olga Birzul, film curator, cultural manager

Anastasia Verlinska, director of the international animation festival LINOLEUM

Alex Malyshenko, film journalist, member of the Union of Film Critics of Ukraine, programmer

Vika Leshchenko, programmer, cultural manager

Aliona Shylova, film critic, member of the Union of Film Critics of Ukraine

Serhii Ksaverov, film critic, FIPRESCI member, Kyiv Critic’s Week co-curator

Аlona Penzii, cinematography theorist, cinema critic

Sonya Vseliubska, film critic, member of the Union of Film Critics of Ukraine

Oleksandra Kalinichenko, film critic, member of the Union of Film Critics of Ukraine, editor of online cinema Takflix

Oleh Baturin, journalist, FIPRESCI member

Alik Shpiliuk, film critic, FIPRESCI member, EFA member

Natalia Serebryakova, film critic, FIPRESCI member, Golden Globes Voter

Olena Korkodym, founder of the website about cinema “Dokumenty”, member of the Union of Film Critics of Ukraine

Kateryna Slipchenko, film critic, FIPRESCI member

Dmytro Sydorenko, member of the Union of Film Critics of Ukraine

Yelyzaveta Sushko, film journalist, member of the Union of Film Critics of Ukraine, SMM-manager of the film A Picture to Remember

Oleg Chorny, film director and media artist, member of the Ukrainian Filmmakers Union, Ukrainian Film Academy, and Union of Film Critics of Ukraine 

Olga Sydorushkina, film curator, culture manager 

Lukian Halkin, film critic, producer

Julia Sinkevych, producer, co-founder of the Ukrainian Film Academy, head of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Institute

Serhiy Trymbach, film critic, FIPRESCI member

Anton Frolov, film critic, founder of the Bardak Film Festival

Denys Budanov, film critic, FIPRESCI member, member of the Union of Film Critics of Ukraine and Ukrainian Film Academy, head of programming of the festivals Brukivka IFF and Kharkiv MeetDocs EUFF

Vitaliі Sheremetyev, producer, member of the Ukrainian Film Academy, the Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, and the Public Council of the Ukrainian State Film Agency

Oksana Volosheniuk, film critic, FIPRESCI member, member of the Union of Film Critics of Ukraine

Mila Novikova, film critic, FIPRESCI member

Yelizaveta Smith, film director, producer

Maryna Stepanska, film director

Tatjana Kononenko, film director
Pylyp Illienko, producer, head of Ukrainian State Film Agency (2014 — 2019)

Darya Bassel, producer, head of the industrial section of Docudays UA

Alisa Kovalenko, director

Mariia Ponomarova, director, creative producer, member of the Documentary Association of Europe

Oleksandra Kravchenko, producer

Dmytro Sukhanov, producer

Alina Gorlova, director, producer

Maksym Asadchyi, general producer of Pronto Film