Even before truth falls victim to war, differentiation dies. The internationally acclaimed Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa had to find out – the Ukrainian film academy, ie its own people, expelled him from their ranks two days ago. The reason given was that Loznitsa, according to his own statements, sees himself as a “cosmopolitan” at a time when every Ukrainian has to defend his “national identity”. There can be “no compromises or halftones”.
Has the Berlin-based filmmaker, who won the Prix Un Certain Regard in Cannes for the bitter war film “Donbass” and also accompanied the Ukrainian revolution in 2014 with the documentary “Maidan”, made any pro-Putin comments?
Not at all, on the contrary, just read his statement of February 27, three days after the start of the war: “The war that Russia has unleashed against Ukraine is an insane and suicidal act that will lead to the inevitable collapse of the criminal Russian regime. The whole world is witnessing a battle between good and evil, truth and lies, a battle of biblical proportions. Ukraine will win!”
“A gift for Kremlin propaganda.”
Loznitsa then angrily resigned from the European Film Academy when it did not immediately find a position against the war that he considered appropriate. As a result, however, he spoke out in favor of not boycotting all Russian filmmakers indiscriminately – those who opposed the Putin regime deserved continued support from the West.
To attach to a fiercely patriotic position some differentiation as far as Russian artists are concerned – even that act now seems unacceptable to his colleagues hanging out in the bombings of Ukraine – hence the exclusion. Which is also supported by the accusation that Loznitsa did not withdraw his works from a French film festival that wants to show films from all parts of the former Soviet Union.
In his response to the sacking, which he wrote in the form of an open letter, Loznitsa is outraged that the term “cosmopolitan” is now being used again as a swear word in his home country – it’s a throwback to the worst times of the late, anti-Semitic era Stalinism. What is the Ukrainian film academy promoting now, he asks and replies: “Not a civilized attitude, not the desire to unite all sane and freedom-loving people in the fight against Russian aggression, not the international efforts of all democratic countries to win this war – but ‘national identity’. Unfortunately, this is Nazism. A gift for Kremlin propaganda.”
He will, writes Sergei Loznitsa in his letter, “always remain a Ukrainian filmmaker”, and concludes: “I hope that in these tragic times we will all hold our own common sense can preserve.”