The trouble with "Russians at War"

I resent that this movie was made with my tax dollars. And yet, I cannot support its cancellation at the hands of an angry crowd.

In America, Russia pays content creators to spread pro-Russian propaganda. And here in Canada, it seems like Canada pays Russians to spread pro-Russian propaganda.

That’s the impression many of us had when news came out about Russians at War, a documentary currently making the festival rounds (including the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival) portraying Russian soldiers invading Ukraine, and financed with a six-figure sum of Canadian taxpayers’ money. I’m sure emergency-room patients lying on gurneys in hospital hallways will understand.

A documentary accused of portraying Russian soldiers as victims and legitimizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked outrage at film festivals in Venice and Toronto.

Russian-Canadian documentary filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova’s “Russians at War,” which follows soldiers through seven months of war, premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday.

“It’s so confusing here,” one soldier states in the film. “I don’t even know what we’re fighting…