‘Donbass’ Producer Denis Ivanov Slams Support for Russian Filmmakers: ‘No More Business as Usual With Putin’s Russia’

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias Denis Ivanov, the Ukrainian producer of critically acclaimed films including Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s “The Tribe,” Sergey Loznitsa’s “Donbass” and Oleh Sentsov’s “Rhino,” has penned an impassioned letter against Russia’s war in Ukraine, describing it as a “genocide against Ukrainians” and accusing the Russian military of war crimes.In the letter, Ivanov gave his full-throated support to a boycott on Russian films, demanding “no more ‘business as usual’ with Putin’s Russia.”“I think some festival selectors, film professionals and cultural managers just do not get what is happening in Ukraine,” he wrote, in light of an ongoing campaign by the Russian military that has escalated in recent days. “This war of aggression by the Russians has turned into a war on independence and a war for values and rights.

It is, first of all, the genocide of Ukrainians. “In these circumstances, I sincerely wonder about the position, that I endlessly read about in the press and online that: ‘culture is out of politics,’ ‘we have to hear opposition voices,’ ‘boycott will put limits to artistic expression,'” he added.Ivanov underscored that Russia’s film industry, which benefits heavily from state financing, existed both explicitly and implicitly with the Kremlin’s backing.“Most of the Russian ‘opposition’ directors can work only because they were allowed to work by Putin’s regime.

They have their roles in the play, written and directed in Kremlin,” he wrote. “Presentation of their work at film festivals has the only aim — to falsely show that Russia is part of the so-called civilized world.