Canadian Deputy Prime Minister concerned about propaganda film screening at Toronto film festival

Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who has Ukrainian roots, has condemned the screening of the film Russians at War at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Source: European Pravda, citing Canadian news channel CBC

Details: Freeland told journalists on Tuesday, 10 September that both diplomats and the Canadian-Ukrainian community have expressed "grave concerns" about the film, and she "shares those concerns".

"It's not right for Canadian public money to be supporting the screening and production of a film like this," she said.

Commenting on the claim of the film's creator, former Russia Today director Anastasia Trofimova, who said that Russians at War was an anti-war film, Freeland said that in the war against Ukraine, there is no moral equivalency between the victim and the aggressor.

"This is a war of Russian aggression, this is a war where Russia is breaking international law and committing war crimes. There is very clearly good and evil in this war. Ukranians are fighting for their sovereignty and for democracy around the world," Freeland stressed.

Russians at War was screened at the Venice International Film Festival on 5 September. The director said she had spent seven months with a Russian battalion fighting in Ukraine, and it came as a shock to her to see that they were "absolutely ordinary guys with families and a sense of humour".

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has expressed outrage that the Venice Film Festival screened the film.

The Consulate General of Ukraine in Toronto has also protested against the plans to screen Russians at War at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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