The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have expressed deep concern over the inclusion of Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s film "DAU" in the program of the Venice International Film Festival.
"The Venice International Film Festival, organized by La Biennale di Venezia, is one of the world’s most influential cinematic platforms, and its decisions carry significant weight in determining what the international cultural community recognizes and legitimizes. It is precisely for this reason that the inclusion of Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s ‘DAU’ in the main competition of the 83rd Venice Film Festival, where it will compete for the Golden Lion, is a matter of deep concern. At a time when Russia continues its war of aggression against Ukraine, systematically destroying our cities, cultural heritage and national identity, granting one of the most prestigious cultural platforms to a project linked to the Russian state and its networks of influence sends an extremely alarming signal," the ministries said in a joint statement.
The ministries said they deeply respect the festival’s curatorial independence and artistic judgment, but culture cannot be viewed separately from politics or assessed solely on artistic criteria without considering who finances it and whose interests it ultimately serves.
The statement said that a close examination of the film’s background shows that the project was financed by Russian businessman Sergei Adoniev, who is under U.S. and Ukrainian sanctions and has confirmed ties to Vladimir Putin’s regime.
"Ilya Khrzhanovsky headed a cultural project financed by Russian oligarchs linked to the Kremlin that came under widespread criticism from Ukrainian and international intellectuals. The film’s lead actor, Teodor Currentzis, accepted Russian citizenship granted by Vladimir Putin and developed his musical career with financing from sanctioned Russian state-owned banks and state cultural institutions. These ties have already led a number of European cultural institutions to cancel his performances and terminate cooperation with him," the statement said.
The ministries also pointed out that "DAU" was filmed in Kharkiv between 2008 and 2011, but that the Ukrainian city is portrayed in the film exclusively through a Soviet lens, without regard for its own history and identity. Such an approach, they said, reflects the same imperial narrative model that Russia continues to impose through its war of aggression against Ukraine.
"We are not calling for censorship of culture or artists. We are calling on the Venice International Film Festival and the broader cultural community to recognize how Russia turns culture into an instrument of its hybrid warfare and to stop treating Kremlin-backed cultural projects as politically neutral," the ministries said.
The ministries also called on all authoritative international cultural platforms to conduct proper due diligence to ensure that the cultural instruments of a state continuing to wage a war of aggression against Ukraine are not legitimized under the guise of artistic freedom.
