Big kerfufle at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) of late over the screening of Muscovite Pity Party Russians at War.
Under pressure from the local Ukrainain community, the Festival has suspended screenings, not out of any acknowledgement of the community's concerns, but over "security concerns" - concerns which, for the record, the Toronto Police did not share, and made no recommendations about one way or the other.
Cue the tiresome hand-wringing from the local artsy-fartsies abut the power of the film's pacifist message. Propaganda? Oh no ma'am. Just humanizing the rape of pillage of a country.
I would have a lot more sympathy for the argument from artistic expression if the director, Anastasia Trofimova, had not been a Russian national previously employed by Russia Today (RT). Or, if this had not been during a time of war in which real lives were at stake.
So what's the difference between Russians at War and Twenty Days in Mariupol, which gave the Ukrainian side (and won a pile of Oscars in the process)? This: Mariupol is about people defending their country from brutal invaders. Russians at War is about the invaders. This is not different sides of the same issue: they are not equally entitled to my sympathy.
Make no mistake: those allegedly poor Russians are there to kill Ukrainians. Unless they mutiny and defect, they will probably obey their orders and kill more.
A message of pacifism will make no headway in Moscow. It could make quite a bit in democratic countries. Loosey-goosey both-siderism could easily take hold in the more squeamish elements of democratic society and push ballot-box pressure to end military aid, or force Ukraine into futile "negotiations" - the appeaser's favourite euphemism for "surrender".
The Kremlin is quite happy to push this kind of psychological opiate, especially when they're this close to getting their operatives back into the White House - Trump and Vance have both stated their plan for Ukraine is give Russia everything it wants, and I do mean everything. Russia at War is just what the Russophile Trumpists need.
Anti-war my ass.
