The Congress of Ukrainians of Estonia (CUE) is urging the organizers of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival to scratch the Russian film “Deaf Lovers” off its screening schedule. The film promotes Kremlin narratives and justifies Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the organization says.
“The Ukrainian people continue to suffer brutal torture, violence, and rape at the hands of Russian occupiers, so the message of the film, ‘love will conquer war,’ is deeply offensive and has a traumatic impact on Ukrainians, especially war refugees,” the statement reads.
The film promotes Russian entreaties of “reconciliation” between the peoples of Ukraine and Russia, while the Kremlin’s genocidal war continues, the CUE said.
“We firmly believe that culture is never outside of politics. We would also note that the director, Boris Guts, has not yet stated to which country Crimea belongs to,” the statement said, in reference to the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia forcibly conquered and illegally annexed in 2014.
The Ukrainian Estonian group appealed to the festival organizers on Nov. 13 to “consider the potential risks of screening ‘Deaf Lovers’ by Boris Guts, and to consider removing the film from the festival program.”
However, the festival organizers subsequently let the film to world premiere and will only remove the film from the “Support for Ukraine” section of the program, according to Estonian Public Broadcasting.
“The film will be shown at the festival because we did not choose it by chance. It is in the program because it is artistically and thematically very striking and allows us to discuss issues that are particularly relevant at this moment,” said festival director Tiina Lokk.
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine also called on the Tallinn International Film Festival to remove the film from the program, calling it yet another attempt to “humanize Russia as an aggressor and whitewash it using culture.”
Guts’ film tells the story of the relationship between a Ukrainian female refugee and a Russian man in Istanbul during the ongoing Russo-Ukraine war. Both are deaf. They develop mutual feelings, but their relationship is complicated by the war.
Cover: PÖFF
