"I cannot accept an award in a city where orders are given to kill children, women and old people."

Bulgarian director Teodor Ushev refused the Moscow Film Festival prize. And spoke out against the war there twice

Bulgarian animation director and Oscar nominee Teodor Ushev won the Moscow International Film Festival's special Silver St. George award for his new short film Phi 1,618 — and declined to accept it. During a press conference and in a speech shown at the festival's closing ceremony, he condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The director did not come to Moscow to participate in the festival, but he prepared several addresses. He delivered the first one at a press conference held on April 27. Ushev said that during the address he had to switch to Russian because he suspected the translator of censoring his speech. Here is the text of the speech:

"Art is a means of conversation with people," Chernyshevsky said. He also said: "Progress is the desire to elevate man to human dignity."

I'm sad that I'm not in Moscow, drinking vodka with Yuri Norshteyn.

Human immortality does not create a work of art. It does not help humanity. If talented people knew that the time of the whole world lay before them, they would not write a single verse. Immortality is good only for dictators, tyrants. All dictatorships are born of the burning desire of one insecure man to write his name in large letters on the eternal stone of history. Tyrants see history only as an eternal stone on which to chisel their name. Only dictators want to live forever. Immortality is the path to terror. And art is ephemeral. If you collect all the books in one place, you can be sure that there will always be someone who wants to press the red button and erase everything.

The film "Fi 1,618" has many references to Russian history. And I admit that I am an absolute fan of Russian culture. In general, your culture was Russia's most powerful weapon. We read your literature with bated breath, watched your exciting films. And suddenly everything disappeared. I have to say this, because [my] film raises precisely the topic of the destruction of culture, art, love, humanism. Their destruction by totalitarianism, dictatorship.

War is destroying Russian culture. Every missile you launch burns one Russian book. Every bomb you launch explodes one poem, destroys one film. With every innocent child or woman you kill, you kill one writer, artist, director. War is killing your art! Why do you need this? For a piece of land where not a single potato will sprout after the war? And if it does, it will be poisoned - by the flour of the murdered people. I don’t understand. I beg you, let’s do something. Man and love must conquer hatred and death. I believe that not all is lost. Save at least one poem! At least this poem by Anna Akhmatova: “So it will be! We don’t need someone else’s land, We are creating our own - And the mighty reservoir has gifted it with water…” Do you know how it ends? “Driving sheep in the shadows, They no longer know what their father sadly sang about… But what has now happened in my country of labor, Has forever become radiant in history.”

On the MIFF website, Ushev’s speech was presented in a heavily edited and truncated version.

Quote

"My film reflects humanity's eternal search for perfection, a way to rise above the ordinary. But my film is also about books, about love, and how we can defeat dictatorship with their help. Chernyshevsky wrote that art is a means of conversation with people. My film talks about the dangers of a totalitarian society, which we are all approaching, and how art can help turn away from this dangerous path. One of the signs of a totalitarian society is the desire to make everyone perfect, but this is impossible due to human nature."

The event's Facebook page reported that after Ushev's speech, there was "dead silence" in the conference hall.

At the festival's closing ceremony, the Los Angeles-based director once again addressed the audience via video. Here's what he said:

Good evening! Hello, friends!

Thank you for your recognition. Cinema is the most powerful weapon. But this weapon is useful only when it serves the interests of good. In my little film, one small, insignificant man blew up the mighty top of the totalitarian titans. Like in my favorite fairy tale, where Ivanushka the Fool outsmarted Koshchei the Deathless (because tyrants are always considered immortal).

In any other circumstances I would be happy to accept this statue - it symbolizes the victory of good over evil. St. George cutting off the head of the snake that kills children. But today, here in this country, in beautiful Moscow, good and evil have changed places. You are told that the snake is good. So that you send your children to be slaughtered.

I cannot accept this award in a city where orders are given to kill children, women and old people. Yours, my brothers.

We write with the same letters. And instead of using these letters to write words like "love", "joy", "happiness", here they write commands to bomb people who just want to be free.

So it is with great regret that I must give up this statuette. I want to leave it to you here in Moscow. Let Mr. Mikhalkov put it in his office next to the icon of St. George - in this way I want to remind you what exactly St. George symbolizes. I believe that peace will come, that good will win the war over evil. Everyone must choose whose side they are on - good or evil. On the side of the immortal Koshchei or Ivanushka.

Don't betray yourself! One day you will be able to call black black and white white again. And when that happens, when Moscow can breathe freely again, I will come and ask for the statuette back. And I will know that it really is St. George, and not a lying impostor. Please tell your Z-General, as Brodsky said in 1968: "I don't want to die for two or three kings whom I have never even laid eyes on... However, I don't want to live for them either. Doubly so. General! I am sick of everything. I am bored with the crusade."

And I want to finish in Bulgarian: make a movie, not a war!

The action of the film by Theodore Ushev "Phi 1,618" takes place in a utopian future, where biologically perfect people live - Biotitans. The main characters, Gargara and Krypton, try to resist this world order. "They will have various adventures in a constant race with time and in the eternal struggle between love and evil, humanity and unscrupulousness," - says the description of the film.

The director told the Bulgarian publication BTA that he had not planned to send the film to the competition, but decided to try so that people in Russia could see a film about a “totalitarian dystopian world, a copy of what Russia is today.” Unexpectedly for Ushev himself, the film was not only included in the competition program, but was later awarded a special prize. “I couldn’t believe it. Neither me nor my team.”

"If it had been a film about birds and bees, I would never have sent it. But I thought, this is a film that can somehow influence people who are forced to continue living in Russia, give them courage, console them," the director said.

Russian television showed the closing ceremony of the festival, but Ushev's speech was not broadcast, the Bulgarian service of Radio Liberty reports . During the director's speech, the announcer said: "The creators of the film were unable to attend the ceremony. They will be awarded the prize later."

"Jellyfish"