Woody Allen Counters Condenation for Ukraine for speaking at the Russian Film Festival
/ AP
The Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Relations sentenced Woody Allen on Monday to speak virtually at a Russian film festival during the weekend, calling for their participation in the event “A misfortune and insult” to the victims of The large -scale invasion of Russia of Ukraine.
According to Russian media, Allen spoke on Sunday at the International Moscow Film Week through Video Conference. The appearance disagreed with the Hollywood establishment, which has adopted the cause of Ukraine during the 3 1/2 -year war of Russia, with prominent actors who registered in the Crowdfunding initiative of United24 and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, making virtual appearances in golden balloons and grammys ceremonies past.
The images broadcast by Russian State TV showed the filmmaker addressing a closely full movie theater from a massive screen, with the film director Pro-Kremlin, Fyodor Bondarchuk, moderating the session. The stories of the Russian media cited Allen saying that he always liked Russian cinema, counting his trips past to Russia and the Soviet Union, and speaking of what he would do if he received a proposal to direct a film in the country.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in an online statement on Monday said that “firmly condemns” Allen’s participation in the festival, which “brings together supporters and nozzles of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.”
The Ministry described it as “a misfortune and an insult to the victims among Ukrainian actors and filmmakers who have been killed or wounded by Russian war criminals,” adding that Allen “is gaking a blind eye to the atrocities that Russia has been committing in Ukraine.”
In a statement to News on Monday, Allen criticized Putin and denounced the invasion, but asked to continue cultural exchanges.
“When it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, I firmly believe that Vladimir Putin is totally wrong. The war he has caused is terrible,” said Allen. “But, whatever politicians have done, I don’t feel that cutting artistic conversations is a good way to help.”
The Festival’s website, which extends until Wednesday, announced to Allen as one of its poster heads, along with the Serbian film director Emir Kusturica and American actor Mark Dacascos.
The International Moscow Film Week is a relatively new festival, held for the first time in the Russian capital in August 2024. It is separated from the Moscow International Film Festival of decades, which in 2022 was stripped of its accreditation of the International Federation of Cinema Producers Associations after the invasion of Ukraine.
Kusturica has been open about his support for Putin, even after the invasion. He received a Putin award and attended a military parade in Moscow earlier this year.
Allen for a long time has had an affinity for Russian literature and history. His 1975 comedy “Love and Death” falsifies Tolstoy’s fiction and other Russian novelists of the nineteenth century. The title of its 1989 launch “Minor crimes and crimes” echoes the “crime and punishment” of Dostoevsky and also reinforces the issues of irregularities, justice and guilt.
In the 1972 essay, “a brief guide of civil disobedience,” Allen jokes about the Russian revolution, writing that the servants rebelled when “they finally realized that the Tsar and Tsar were the same person.”
- Ukraine