SERGEI LOZNITSA’S PUBLIC STATEMENT

A GIFT TO KREMLIN PROPAGANDISTS FROM THE UKRAINIAN FILM ACADEMY
Since last night, I have been receiving phone calls and messages from friends and colleagues all over the world, expressing their astonishment and asking me to explain what happened to the Ukrainian film academy. I have also been trying to figure this out.  On the 27^th of February 2022, I published the following statement:“The war which Russia waged on Ukraine is an act of suicidal madness, which will inevitably result in a collapse of the criminal Russian regime. What we are witnessing now is the Battle of Good and Evil, of Truth and Lies, a truly biblical event. Ukraine will prevail! I’m also deeply shocked by the apparent lack of resolution displayed by a lot of institutions, public figures and governments, who are in a position to help the cause of the Ukrainian people not only with their words, but also with their prompt and decisive actions. The terrible drama which is unfolding now is, to a large extent, the result of the hypocritical policies of appeasing the monster, of doing business with Russia. For years, Western politicians have been looking away from the crimes committed by the Russian regime in Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea, Donbass and other regions of Europe and the world,  and making compromises, based on the politics of “pragmatism”. I think it’s time for the international community to wake up, to learn its lesson and to defeat the Russian monster.”I left the European Film Academy, because their first statement, published a few days after the beginning of the war, was too neutral, toothless and conciliatory towards the Russian aggression. They did not even have the courage to call the war a war.Over the past days and weeks, I have been busy explaining to various international news outlets and journalists from Europe and the US the causes and the essence of the war, urging the international community to join in the struggle against the Russian aggression; I have been participating in numerous charity screenings of my films “Donbass” and “Maidan”, the proceeds of which are used to support Ukraine; I have been evacuating people from Ukraine and helping refugees.In the tragedy of war, I firmly believe, that one must keep their common sense about them.  I am against the boycott of my colleagues, Russian filmmakers, who are speaking out against the crimes of Putin’s regime.I was astonished to read of the Ukrainian film academy’s decision to expel me for being a cosmopolite. Translated from Greek, the word “cosmopolite” means “citizen of the world”. The first person who proclaimed himself to be a cosmopolitan was the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes.  The stoic philosopher Zeno, as well as Emmanuel Kant, Voltaire, Diderot, Hume and Jefferson all considered themselves to be cosmopolitans. Since the 18^th century the definition of a cosmopolitanhas been used to describe a person open to new ideas and free from cultural, political and religious prejudices. It is only during the late Stalinist era, from the onset of the antisemitic campaign unleashed by Stalin between 1948 and 1953, that the term acquired a negative connotation in Soviet propaganda discourse.By speaking out against cosmopolitanism, the Ukrainian “academy members” employ this very discourse invented by Stalin, based on hatred, denial of freedom of speech, advocating collective guilt and forbidding any manifestations of individualism and individual choice. Or are the “academy members” simply against the values of Diogenes, Zeno, Kant and Voltaire? Are they against the values, which form the foundation of the culture and society of contemporary Europe, a place they claim they are so desperate to belong in? I feel the need to give such a detailed definition and background of the notion of “cosmopolitan”, as outside of the former Soviet empire it is only professional Sovietologists who are aware of these connotations.Teachers of Russian from the university of Nantes (France) hold an annual festival of films produced in the countries formed after the collapse of the USSR. The festival is financed by the university. I found out about this festival from the statement of the Ukrainian film academy. I have contacted the organisers of the festival and they informed me that the “academy members” and the Ukrainian “cultural community”, in principle, support the decision to hold the festival, only they demand that all the films in the festival’s programme are replaced by films produced in Ukraine or films about Ukraine. I quote: “…we propose to replace the films of the entire program with films produced in Ukraine or about Ukraine, thus delimiting our culture from Russian cinema…”When the festival organisers refused to meet the demands of the “academy members” they were verbally attacked and subjected to a torrent of abuse from the Ukrainian “cultural community”. The slogan of this year’s festival is “Entre Lviv et l”Oural”, which means “Between Lviv and the Urals”. It is not “From Lviv to the Urals”, as the “academy members” erroneously translated from French.“Nowadays, when Ukraine is fighting for its independence with all its might, the key concept in the rhetoric of every Ukrainian should be his national identity,” – reads the message published on the Ukrainian film academy’s Facebook page. So, it is not the civil and political standpoint of every citizen of the country that matters; it is not the aspiration to unite all the freedom loving and free-thinking people of the world against the Russian aggression; it is not the creation of an international effort of all democratic countries in the world to win this war; it is the “national identity” that matters most. Unfortunately, this is Nazism. A gift to Kremlin propagandists from the Ukrainian film academy.The “academy members” demand that the international community “does not position me as a representative of the Ukrainian cultural sphere”. Never in my life have I represented any community, group, association or “sphere”. Everything I say and do has always been and always will be my own individual statements and actions.I am and will always be a Ukrainian filmmaker. I sincerely wish for everyone to remain sane during this tragic time.Sergei Loznitsa March 19, 2022