#Zurich film festival

[dontforgetukraine]

TIFF: And so it continues...5 to ZFF

Aaand "Russians at War" is going to be at the Zurich Flim Festival. Because of course.

The Russian Canadian director Anastasia Trofimova met a soldier on home leave in Moscow's subway, accompanying him to the front lines, where she spent over a year filming unauthorized footage in a battalion near the Ukrainian border. In her film, she gives voice to soldiers who have no understanding of the war's causes and soon find themselves mourning comrades who have become Putin's cannon fodder. This harrowing and unique war documentary captures images you would never see in the news media. 'Who are the Russian soldiers who are fighting against Ukraine? What do they think of Putin? The documentary has them speak their minds. A film that revealed more to me about this conflict than 100 newspaper articles.' – Christian Jungen Anastasia Trofimova Anastasia Trofimova was born in Moscow and is a Russian-Canadian filmmaker. She first studied communications and political science and then international relations. Trofimova is a renowned filmmaker who has made a name for herself through her work in conflict zones such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Russia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In her films, she addresses social inequality and injustice. She has been honoured with the Canada Screen Award and has participated as a jury member at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards five times. RUSSIANS AT WAR (2024) / CONGO, MY PRECIOUS (2017) / VICTIMS OF ISIS (2015) / HER WAR: WOMEN VS. ISIS (2015)

No mention of RT in the director's bio of course. Same shit, different film festival.

Also, if this propaganda film reveals more to you about the war than 100 news articles, that's not shining praise for the film, but rather an indictment of the sorry state of our collective media landscape in Ukraine and the West.

The West obviously has a problem of not reporting on Ukraine as often anymore. It's not "fashionable". A lot of the reporting I've come across is superficial and there is rarely a deep dive into the Ukrainian civilian aspect of the war. It seems there always has to be either a grotesque catastrophic event due to Russian aggression (like the Okhmatdyt children's cancer hospital), or an interesting enough topic in order for something to be considered (like the Mykola Hryshko national botanical garden being in danger of losing its tropical plants due to the war causing electricity cuts.) There is a dearth of human interest stories, which is the core of understanding this war and the effects it has on Ukrainians.

When there is such a story, it falls into the situation of the "box-ticking approach", as described by Dr. Olesya Khromeychuk:

It is not enough to simply ‘do Ukraine’ by reviewing one book on the war, especially if it’s by a Western journalist rather than a Ukraine-based author. It’s not enough to host one exhibition, particularly if it is by an artist or photographer who only spent a few weeks in the country. Quickly putting together a panel on Russia’s war in response to a major development at the front and adding a sole Ukrainian voice at the last minute doesn’t cut it either. This box-ticking approach is unhelpful and insulting.

Most if not all of the quotes I pull from human-interest stories are from Ukrainian journalism. If you've been following me for the short time I've had this blog up, you'll notice I read a lot. At this point I've given up on looking up Western based English media, because the core stories that define the war are just not there. If there is an interesting article from the West, I'll usually see it pop up on my Twitter feed (like the botanical garden story) and I'll take a look then because its been recommended and has what I'm looking for.

And finally, Western media can't let go of having some Russian expert talk about Ukraine, instead of actually talking to Ukrainians.

Kate from Kharkiv: Ukrainian media, both in Ukrainian and English, must improve their regional reporting. They are increasingly resembling local Kyiv media, which limits global awareness of events across Ukraine. Consequently, international media rarely cover these regions unless we die en mass. But not too often, because if often it is not news anymore.

Like Kate from Kharkiv points out, mass-casualty events are no longer "fashionable". She further indicates the lack of essential reporting in specific regions where conditions are different from Kyiv. One such example is the Russians turning Kherson into a "human safari". Initially, only Zarina Zabrisky was reporting on how Russian drones pilots were deliberately targeting civilians, and she shouldn't have to be the only one reporting on this. While there are some Western news outlets that have reported on this situation now, it's still not enough. Zarina Zabrisky is still diligently doing the bulk of the work in reporting on this. I can only imagine what other stories in other regions are going untold because there is little to no coverage.

The other obstacle I've noticed is accessibility to news in Ukraine from a language perspective. There isn't enough English language coverage from Ukrainian media outlets. While I would love to be able to read Ukrainian confidently, I'm nowhere near there yet, and the West is collectively even further away. Google translate isn't a great substitute either for obvious reasons. The number of times I wanted to read/watch a news report, and there was no English supplement is a lot. It happens frequently with the English language Ukrainian news accounts I follow. They'll post a clip from a news report with no translated subtitles and say, "look at this!", but I can't extract the information they want to show because of this problem.

This is why I hold volunteer translators as some of the most valuable contributors in the information space, and I will always credit them.

It's a vicious cycle. If a large proportion of Ukrainian news media is inaccessible to Western media due to the language barrier, information has even less of a chance of being noticed and spreading. This is, in my opinion, the other side of the coin on issues in the information war.

[yournoeliafan]

[mrs-stans]

@zurichfilmfestival: ✨ It’s time to announce ten more #GalaPremieres! The ten new titles include films with Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Nicole Kidman as well as a total of four world permieres! Find out more about each film via link in bio. A lot to look forward to - are you as excited as we are? The complete program of the 20th ZFF will be made official on our website on Thursday, September 19, at noon. Stay tuned! 👀#ZFF2024 #ZurichFilmFestival

[eddieredmayneargentinablog]

September memories: Eddie Redmayne at ZURICH FILM FESTIVAL Photocall and Green Carpet, during the premiere of The Good Nurse, on 25 September 2022.

📸 Credit: © Pablo Tosi Photography on Instagram.

[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

My gifs from Giger Silvan Video

Zurigh Film Festival

[everythingmaxriemelt]

Max’s next feature film “Es Geht um Luis” (It’s About Luis) will be premiered at Zurich Film Festival on 7th October ❤️

[dailybruhl]

Daniel Brühl at the Zurich Film Festival 2022

[sincericida]

Andrew Garfield at Zurich Film Festival, (October 8th, 2017)

[christianfriedelfan]

Christian Friedel at the Zurich Film Festival

[toobruhlforschool]

Daniel Brühl attends the 18th Zurich Film Festival | Sept. 23, 2022 also in attendance a little bit of grey hair in his beard

[yournoeliafan]

[mrs-stans]

@zurichfilmfest: The 20th Zurich Film Festival features an unprecedented lineup! In addition to previously announced guests like Kate Winslet and Pamela Anderson, others such as Ralph Fiennes, Sebastian Stan, Iris Berben and more will also be in attendance.

[eddieredmayneargentinablog]

2022 Zurich Film Festival> Photos by Sven Bänziger.

[stylestream]

Diane Kruger | Stéphane Rolland Fall 2023 Couture gown | Zurich Film Festival | 2023

[malebimbo]

Nikolaj Coster Waldau by Cyrill Matter, Zurich Film Festival 2019.

[havithreatendub4]

Johnny at the #Zurich Film Festival #October 2, 2020 #ZFF Masters: Johnny Depp - 16th Zurich Film Festival at Kino Corso #Master Class #about Grindelwald