“We really believe that everything Russian should be erased. Andrew Fesiak, a producer and other representatives of Ukrainian cinema demanded this Thursday in Cannes the total exclusion of Russian films from the international market, including those of Kirill Serebrennikov, the day after the opening by the latter, in break with the regime, competition.
“Russian filmmakers cannot pretend that all is well and that they have nothing to reproach themselves, at a time when Ukrainians are forced to stop making films because they have to, or flee for their lives , or take up arms,” said Andrew Fesiak, during a conference hosted by the American pavilion at the Film Market.
About the film’s presence in competition Tchaikovsky’s wife, he felt that his director “Serebrennikov is not an opponent, not at all”, recalling that “his whole career was financed by money from the Russian government”. The director is now based in Berlin
There are no “good Russians” at the moment
The Cannes Film Festival has decided not to host any official Russian representation or Russians who defend the Kremlin line. But its general delegate Thierry Frémaux defended the idea of welcoming Russian dissidents. “There are Russian artists, journalists, who have left Russia,” he said on Monday. Kirill Serebrennikov is a man who considered that if he did not leave Russia, he was complicit in this war”.
Thierry Frémaux had specified at the opening of the festival that the idea of a “total boycott” had been requested “not by the Ukrainian authorities but by ultras, people who are very radical”. “It is a position that I can understand […] because these are people who are under the bombs, ”he also acknowledged.
Andriy Khalpakhchi, the director of the Kyiv Molodist Film Festival, responded on Thursday that in his opinion there are no “good Russians” at the moment. For him, Kirill Serebrennikov “should have made the decision on his own not to participate in the Cannes Film Festival”.