"True is not always convenient"

The Vice Speaker of the State Duma of Russia, Peter Tolstoy, sent a request to the general prosecutor Yuri Chaika and Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky with a request to check whether the film is violated by Ukrainian director Yevgeny Titarenko “War for the World” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on “Public calls for extremism and terrorism” and “inciting hatred”. The documentary on the Volunteer Medical Battalion "Hospitallers", which participated in the war in the east of Ukraine, is planned to be shown in Moscow in early December at the Artdokfest festival.

"We, at all international sites with all our means, protect the honor of our country in the most difficult conditions and under unprecedented external pressure, and some businessmen with the support of such" partners of the festival "as" echo of Moscow "," rain "," Yeltsin Center "," Medusa "," Radio Liberty "and a number of other notorious structures consider it normal to arrange such provocations, Otherwise, this cannot be called, ”the Russian news agencies quoted the statement widespread by the press service of the vice speaker. According to Tolstoy, it is unacceptable to show a film in the network of Russian cinemas, in which Russia is represented by an aggressor country, and not a guarantor of the implementation of the Minsk agreements, and the ATO fighters in the southeast of Ukraine-heroes and benefactors. " On the evening of November 22, the first channel dedicated the film Titarenko to the 45-minute talk show “Time will tell” , during which the picture was branded about the same words, comparing with the propaganda of the “Islamic state”.

The Russian media of the “conservative-patriotic” sense-such as the Tsargrad TV channel- accused Evgeny Titarenko of “Singing Ukrainian Fascism”. The Zvezda television channel wrote that the picture “reveals the image of Russia as an aggressor country”, and REGNUM edition in protest against his show was torn by partnerships with Artdokfest. Some Facebook users are alreadyoffering to “throw tomatoes” of the Karo-Film cinema chain office that provided the festival with a platform for display.

Separate critics, however, mixed up the film by Evgeny Titarenko with a 25-minute video about the Azov battalion, which is posted on YouTube in the same name, but has nothing to do with the director.

The fact that Titarenko not only shot films in the ATO zone, but also joined the medical volunteer battalion "Hospitallers", which is part of the Right Sector organization, also joined the fire. In the war in the east of Ukraine, some of his friends were killed, there are no other heroes of the "war for peace" already alive.

The Directorate of the Festival "Artdokfest" published an official message on its website about the situation arising around the film.

"Artdokfest" was and remains a zone of freedom. If we lose the right to freedom, and even more so we refuse freedom ourselves, there will be no sense in Artdokfest. We value our freedom of statement, the freedom of the work of our authors, the right to an alternative point of view of both our authors and our spectators. Alternative not only in relation to the current government, but also to the position of the Directorate "Artdokfest" too. The main thing for us is that the cinema that we show is documentary (which is equal to "honest") and talented. Therefore, in our program, films and about the Orthodox priest who bless the Russian citizens to war with the Ukrainian army, and the film "Ladan Navigator", full of sympathy for the pro-Russian side of the conflict, and the film "Warrior of the Spirit" on the medieval conspiracy "Judaizers" against Rus', according to the Orthodox priest, which had a continuation in the activities of the fifth column in modern Russia ...

But, excuse me, we also have the film "War for the Peace", shot by the young Ukrainian director on the territory of his state during a real war with those who achieve the dismemberment of his country. Unfortunately (fortunately for our opponents), one show of such a film in the hall for 150 people is not able to change the attitude to the issue and its understanding of 145 million who see the world through the screens of their TVs. But freedom should survive somewhere and arise somewhere. Where it ends, we know well from the history of the twentieth century.

Earlier, in a commentary for Medusa, the President of the festival Vitaly Mansky said that if the prosecutor’s office recognizes the film extremist, the organizers of Artdokfest will remove him from the show.

The Ministry of Culture of Russia said in response to the deputy request of Peter Tolstoy that "they do not have the authority to check the film Evgeny Titarenko," since it is demonstrated within the framework of the festival and by law is not required to have a rental certificate.

In an interview with Radio Liberty, Yevgeny Titarenko responds to Pyotr Tolstoy’s claims, talks about the most remembered for his filming moments of his film and answers the question of whether he is ready to personally come to Moscow if his film is still shown at Artdokfest:

- How much expected for you was what is happening around the planned show "War for the Forces" in Moscow?

- We sent applications to several festivals, and it so happened that Artdoxfest is one of the first. Initially, I did not expect that we would even go to this festival, but when we had already passed, we only had to appear on the Artdokfest website in the out -of -competition program, as a large -scale information campaign was deployed against us in two hours. How expected was it? Hypothetically, of course, it is expected, because if you perceive all the information only from the TV, some alternative opinion is perceived in bayonets. But in my case, I did not use the voice behind the scenes, as most television channels do when creating my plots, no one in my film says where to see what to look for, and most importantly - what to think.

The viewer is not stupid, the viewer himself understands everything and draws conclusions for himself

The viewer is not stupid, the viewer himself understands everything, watching this film, and draws conclusions for himself. In principle, I expected this. But yesterday I looked about myself the program on the “First Channel, in the prime time, and I probably must say thanks to the first channel for such an advertisement-45 minutes, at the back of my trailer, such a beautiful folder opens up, my business, who I did, my photo ... They came very cool! Just a pity that they cut the trailer. The full trailer can be watched on the page of the film in Feiisibuka or in the face or in the face. Yutyub.

- What is the situation today, according to your feelings? Will this film be shown in the end?

- I don't know. I am still in Ukraine, and all actions take place on the territory of the Russian Federation, so it’s hard for me to predict how and what will happen. At least from what I see, most of the information portals, including quite serious ones, are trying to prevent this by all means. Nobody watched the film except the selection commission of the festival, but I did not read it as "Solzhenitsyn, but I condemn" - it happens here. No one knows that in the film, there is only a trailer, but everyone already very much condemn this film. For me, this is strange - how can you condemn what you have not seen? But this is my subjective opinion.

-Did you have to cut something out of the film for showing on Artdokfest?

- We sent the entire film, it goes 93 minutes, and at this stage we did not cut anything. We sent the same film to all the festivals.

- Did you consider the option of personal arrival at the Artdokfest festival in Moscow?

- Certainly. He is still being examined, I do not see anything super -resident in this.

- What can you answer to Peter Tolstoy’s claims to your film, for example, that he “heroizes the ATO fighters”?

-For me, a big mystery, as Tolstoy can talk about something that he does not know, which he has not seen. At the same time, he refers to some third parties: “I myself did not see, but I was told by those who saw ...” No, no one could say to him, because no one from his environment saw this film. They can only think out. It’s how to say that "Paris does not exist, because I have not seen it" or "everything is bad there, even though I was not there." It's just absurd! It seems to me that this is happening, just to talk, to condemn once again. But, as I said, I do not have a sunbathing voice, I do not have any personal copyright remarks that would direct the viewer, explain something. I have "live". This is not a feature movie. In feature cinema, you can build light, direct the actors, and in the documentary you launch the camera and after 5-7 minutes you even forget that it takes off. There is a completely different approach and a completely different story turns out. Maybe Pan Tolstoy knows how to heroize someone in a documentary without a ordered voice and without any directions.

- Peter Tolstoy also says that this film is a provocation. Here, it seems to me, you can agree in something. In 2017, to show in Moscow a picture shot by a man who himself was part of one of the battalions of the “Right Sector”-this can really provoke people to some unpredictable actions. Even if an innocent historical melodrama about the king’s mistress in Russia caused a storm that lasted many months.

- My film is about a medical battalion, about doctors, about people who went voluntarily to save human lives. We saved both volunteers and civilians, and military personnel, that is, we had no difference to whom to help. Man is primarily a person. And my story is just about the volunteers-medical.

- How did you even get to the Donetsk region and how did you become not only the director, but also the direct participant in the events in the process of filming?

The day after the annexation, I left Crimea

- It all started with the fact that I had a film company in Crimea, there was a film school, I saw my life in creativity, in creating my cinema. But the day after the annexation, I left Crimea. I saw how everything happens. Honestly, few people understood then what was really happening in the Crimea and in the east of Ukraine, like me. I, too, could not answer all the questions, because, well, what have I seen? I saw the Internet, I saw the TV, and on this my knowledge ended. But I can’t afford to draw conclusions about what I do not know, therefore, to understand for myself, I went to the east of Ukraine as a documentary, a journalist. The plan was-to go for several weeks, to see what was happening there, to remove, maybe something came of it, as I thought at that time. But you know, as soon as I came there and see the real picture of what is happening, and I could not just be indifferent. I got on an evacuation from the Donetsk airport, we took the wounded, and somehow that day I made a decision that I want to be a volunteer-medical. Although before that I was not associated with medicine, only my grandmother was a therapist, and that’s all. Many in Ukraine could not be indifferent, and everyone helped, who could, starting from grandmothers who knitted socks, children who knitted camouflage nets, to businessmen who bought all the necessary things. No one could remain indifferent, and everyone helped, who could.

-Did you have an idea to become a respecter-medical, but to pick up a weapon?

- You know, no. Firstly, doctors have no right to wear weapons. Secondly, I never shot at anyone, this is my fundamental position. Initially, when I was driving, I understood that I could not shoot people, but I want to help with something, and I chose medicine.

-A quote from the statement of Peter Tolstoy: "This film presents Russia with an aggressor country, and not a guarantor of the implementation of the Minsk agreements. And the ATO fighters in the southeast of Ukraine are shown there by heroes and benefactors." Is it true that Russia is presented in the film as an aggressor, and the ATO fighters are heroes?

- I shot what I saw. I shot in the sands, shot at the mine in Butovka , shot in different other places. I saw medical evacuation, I saw the locals who die, I saw a soldier who ask for help. I only shot and showed what was in front of me. There are no remarks that would bring the viewer to what you are talking about. The Channel One studio said that I was a soldier, but this is not true. It is necessary to check the information before saying anything, especially on television channels. I have never been a military man, I did not serve in the army, I have nothing to do with the army.

-If we talk about your personal opinion, is Russia an aggressor country?

- I believe that Russia is fighting in Ukraine. Imagine miners, people who on the other side went to protect their homes, and imagine a regular Ukrainian army, purely hypothetically. The war has been going on for the fourth year, and if there were only miners there, they would just end. In general, if you look into history, it all started in 2003, with a dispute for the island of Tuzla, when the Russian Federation had already begun to build a bridge there , on Ukrainian territory, and stopped a hundred meters to the Ukrainian border. If you look at the Kerch bridge, which is now being built, it is built precisely on the highway that they began to build in 2003, through Ukrainian territory, through the Ukrainian island of Tuzla. Someone can say that this is not so, and the TV can say that everything is quite the opposite, but in fact the foundation of this bridge was already laid, and even then, as I understand it, there was a plan for the annexation of Crimea and similar things that we see now. You can call the same things differently, you can cunning in front of you, you can run some double-minded, you can justify some things, show cowardice, but the facts always remain facts.

- How much time did you stay in the Donetsk region?

- I stayed there in 2014 and 2015, went to the family for the New Year, but spent most of the time there.

- What was the worst of what you saw and could remove?

Choosing, meanwhile, help or take it off, I always chose to help

- Choosing, meanwhile, help or take it off, I always chose to help. This is a very complex psychological side. I saw documentaries who could stand nearby and shoot, make a focus beautifully, but I can’t. I think not a single personnel cost human life. When the account really goes to a split second, you make a decision for yourself - go further or stop what to do, and it depends on each decision whether you drink tea in the evening or not. The worst thing ... but I don’t know, it seems to me that everything is scary there. Well, imagine people who have been rebuilt at home all their lives, created their hearth, comfort, and no one was ready for war, no one had it in his thoughts. Who might have thought about this in 2012-13? And the war came to their houses. This is nightmare. You know, it is very easy to condemn or, conversely, to encourage, while at home, at the computer, watching a TV. There are so many wide profile specialists who do not look beyond the TV, but is this objectivity and really? The truth is not always easy and not always convenient.

- Can your film be called anti -war?

- Undoubtedly. I am against the war.

-Is there a main character in your film, a person who constantly appears in the frame, around whom the plot is somehow built?

- Probably the main character I am there. Because I constantly find myself behind the camera, shoot, ask people, I ask questions. And so, there are several people through whom the plot passes, someone may appear on the screen for 20 seconds, someone can stay for a few minutes. But if we talk about the main character, through whom the whole story goes, it is me, the whole story goes through me, because I take all this, I am constantly nearby.

-Are there any moments in the film when you and those who were near you experienced real happiness?

- I do not want to spoil it, but yes, there was a moment when we simply survived a miracle, and this is in the film. Indeed, when you understand that everything could go completely differently and you could be left without legs at best, this is really great happiness! When you understand that everyone is lucky. There is such a thing that Fart is not endless. I stayed there for a year and realized for myself that everything was further ... I did not know what would happen next. For a year I could somehow predict for myself, some kind of intuition was already working. When you have been there for a long time, intuition begins to work for you, and you understand: so, you don’t have to go here, but it’s worth going here ... But in 2015 I made a decision that I was going to the big Earth, to the big world, and the war was over for me personally.

- How did the fate of the people you show in your film?

- Differently.

“Have you lost one of those you met there?”

- I have such a scene - I am going in the ambulance, we are evacuating a journalist, this journalist - Igor Nikolaev from the newspaper Today. There is an evacuation, I am driving with him by car, he has internal bleeding, multiple fragmentation, and we are talking to him. "Did you come here the first time? Are you in the first time in the war?" And he says that he was in Libya, in Syria, in Georgia, he calls 5-6 hot spots where he was. And we come to the opinion that Fart is not endless. Probably, then I realized for myself that if you are shooting, it seems, nevertheless, you are psychologically in the camera, and maybe, therefore, it is a little easier for you, but then I made a decision that you need to protect myself. We took him, but he already died in the hospital .

Такие вот истории. Здесь есть какая-то антироссийская пропаганда, в этой сцене, которую я сейчас вам рассказал? Или, может быть, здесь восхваляются какие-то ужасные люди? Это просто сцена, это история человека, который погиб, который просто был фотографом, который просто поехал пофотографировать, и вот так сложилась его судьба. В этом фильме много судеб людей, которые война изменила. Я не знаю, почему российское государство настроено так против этого фильма, с учетом, что его никто не видел, но по крайней мере, в нем все честно и остается так, как есть, как оно было.

– Если вы все-таки приедете лично в Россию на показ этого фильма, если его, в свою очередь, все-таки покажут, что вы скажете зрителям после сеанса?

– Будьте честными! Будьте честными перед собой, перед людьми. Берегите свою репутацию. Репутация – это самое главное, что у вас есть, то, что мы зарабатываем на протяжении всей жизни своими делами. Самое главное – это честность. И человеческая жизнь.