Russian Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova’s gripping first-person documentary takes us beyond the headlines to join Russian soldiers in Ukraine placing themselves in a battle for reasons that become only more obscure with each gruelling day.
As Russia’s unjust war on Ukraine rages on, it is critical to understand the long history of colonization that has led to this current moment. Russian Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova’s gripping first-person documentary takes us beyond the headlines to join Russian soldiers as they place themselves in a battle for reasons that become only more obscure with each gruelling day, each confusing command, each gut-wrenching casualty.
Russians at War was born of a chance encounter between Trofimova and a middle-aged man on a train. That man, a Ukrainian named Ilya, was about to leave his family and go to war — for Russia. Intrigued by his story, Trofimova, though lacking permission, joins Ilya and his supply unit as they make their harrowing journey to the front line. Many soldiers fighting alongside Ilya are very young. Some believe they’re going to vanquish Ukrainian Naziism. Others go out of belief in cultural unity between Russia and Ukraine. Eventually, they all come to realize that everything they heard about the war in Russian media is false. They begin to doubt their purpose — and fight only to survive.
Moscow-born and Toronto-educated, Trofimova has been chronicling conflicts in Iraq, Syria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Working closely with veteran editor Roland Schlimme (a longtime collaborator of Peter Mettler and Jennifer Baichwal), Trofimova assembles a spellbinding tale of sacrifice and disillusionment in which soldiers resemble pawns in a nefarious game. Russians at War reminds us of the human cost on both sides. As Trofimova so eloquently puts it, “the fog of war is so thick that you can’t see the human stories it’s made of.”
ANITA LEE
Content advisory: violence, mature themes
Screenings
Scotiabank 5