It will ultimately not take place. Scheduled to be held from Thursday at Katorza in Nantes, the festival Russian university, which was to present Russian films or films dealing with Russia, is finally postponed, the organizers announced on Monday. Organizational constraints and the criticisms aroused by the event in the context of the war in Ukraine led to this decision.
“Unable to screen some of the films scheduled and to welcome all the prospective guests, the Univerciné association announces the cancellation of the Univerciné festival on the scheduled dates, i.e. from March 31 to April 3, and its postponement to a date later, not known to date”, they explain in a statement.
“A great indignation of the citizens of Ukraine”
An annual event, the festival had been profoundly modified due to the international context. The event had been renamed “Between Lviv and the Urals”, the duration had been shortened, the festive moments had been removed, a “no to war” logo had been added to the poster and the program had been revised to retain only films by directors “who in their works or by their positions oppose the war and question the context”.
But that didn’t stop the event from attracting criticism. In particular that of the Franco-Ukrainian association Tryzub. “The format of this festival and even more so its name (“Between Lviv and the Urals”) causes great indignation among ordinary citizens of Ukraine. This is seen as propagating the idea that Putin has already annexed Ukraine, which is also being spread by Russian government propaganda,” Tryzub laments on his websitewhich refutes to show “radicalism”.
The regrets of the organizers
The mayor of Lviv (Ukraine) had himself reacted negatively last week, denouncing, via social networks, an “illogical, biased and inhuman” demonstration given the war being played out in his city. He asked for its replacement by a festival devoted solely to Ukrainian cinema. At the same time, a petition demanded the cancellation of the festival.
The organizers regret that “the ambitious and committed cinematographic creation, which had been selected, remains inaccessible at the very moment when it could have contributed to an intellectually fine and sharpened apprehension of the painful time that we are going through”.
In addition to Russian cinema, Univercine also devotes an annual cycle to German, British and Italian films.