EDITOR’S NOTE: In no way, shape or form do I or the staff here at In The Seats support the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing atrocities that are still going on to this day.

We support the importance of film, we support the importance of story and we support the importance of perspective and how these all apply in a world that we are all struggling to navigate on a day to day basis.

We fully believe that the art of film is vital to that and our understanding of the human condition on many different levels.

Ok boys and girls, we’re kind of throwing out the rule book on this one.

Having its North American Premiere this coming Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival; Russians At War might be one of the most profoundly sad but nuanced commentaries on war since 1985’s Come And See.

Moscow-born and Toronto-educated filmmaker and journalist Anastasia Trofimova has yes, quite literally embedded herself with ‘Russians At War’ but hardly in a pro-country nationalistic fashion because what starts as opinions from the subjects that is just born out of a lack of knowledge she allows it to evolve into the truly pointless nature of not just this war but any war in general.  It’s hard to call something pro-war, when the bulk of the soldiers participating in the war, very clearly don’t want to be there?

Here in the west we tend to hold on to a perspective of “good guys” and “bad guys” when it comes to war and conflict.   The idea of seeing men and women participating in a war…because they have no choice has become entirely foreign to us; for better or for worse, but that’s exactly what Russians At War is about.  It’s the profound sadness of the reality that there are men and women who have to endure these horrors pretty much because their country has mandated it on them.  It’s tragic on so many levels.

I can’t honestly give this movie a grade and I can’t deny the at least somewhat controversial way we do get led into the film (along with the nature of some of her other work and producers she’s worked with), but at the end of the day the only thing Russians At War is for is to remind us that the people who pay the ultimate costs for these tragic wars, rarely have a choice in it all to begin with.

And that leads up to something else we need to talk about in this space…

While I emotionally understand the need to protest something as horrific as the war in the Ukraine, it’s so vital that we don’t cancel pieces of art and storytelling that allow for perspectives behind the lines with people who may not have the same perspective that we have.

Journalism and documentary filmmaking exist at the basic core of allowing us as audiences and consumers to take in different perspectives from all over the globe in order to allow us as media consumers in the modern landscape to paint the picture of what is happening in places that we don’t live in for ourselves.   It’s on us to do the work.

The emotional desire to protest something that deals with a subject you object to is entirely understandable, but I can’t understand the logic of not wanting to educate yourself as an audience on the nature of the piece you object to.  In many ways, this is a form of censorship and that’s something that as a journalist and as a lover of the moving image, I can’t abide.

I applaud TIFF for going on with all the screenings that are scheduled for this weekend (check here, buy tickets) but also hope that Ontario Broadcaster TVO (who was an initial supporter of the project) and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland reverse their public condemnation of the film (or at the very least see it before they make up their minds).

In a media landscape where getting funding for documentary filmmaking, especially kinds like this that want to tell difficult yet necessary stories, actions like this from TVO can really put the entire documentary filmmaking landscape at risk.  Documentary films and thinking from a “risk-adverse” standpoint when it comes to investments don’t go hand in hand…and much like the need for a free press, it never will.

You can agree with me, or you can’t (I still love you all either way) but all I can do is implore all audiences to watch something that they’re going to have an opinion on.  It’s why we as critics ALWAYS have to watch more than the trailer, before we talk about it and I hope you all do as well.