2 days ago
8
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry connected Monday condemned Woody Allen for speaking virtually astatine a Russian movie festival implicit the weekend, calling his information successful the lawsuit "a disgrace and an insult" to the victims of Russia's full-scale penetration of Ukraine.
According to Russian media, Allen spoke Sunday astatine the Moscow International Film Week via video conference. The quality enactment him astatine likelihood with the Hollywood establishment, which has embraced Ukraine's origin during Russia's 3 1/2-year war, with salient actors signing connected to the United24 crowdfunding inaugural and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy making virtual appearances astatine past Golden Globes and Grammys ceremonies.
Footage aired by Russian authorities TV showed the filmmaker addressing a tightly packed movie theatre from a monolithic screen, with pro-Kremlin movie manager Fyodor Bondarchuk moderating the session. Russian media stories quoted Allen arsenic saying he's ever liked Russian cinema, recounting his past trips to Russia and the Soviet Union, and talking astir what helium would bash if helium were to person a connection to nonstop a movie successful the country.
Woody Allen during a show astatine the 55th variation of the Voll-Damm Barcelona Jazz Festival astatine the Teatre Tivoli connected September 18, 2023, successful Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Kike Rincon / Europa Press via Getty Images
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry successful an online connection connected Monday said it "strongly condemns" Allen's information successful the festival, which "brings unneurotic supporters and mouthpieces of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin."
The ministry called it "a disgrace and an insult to the victims among Ukrainian actors and filmmakers who person been killed oregon wounded by Russian warfare criminals," adding that Allen "is deliberately turning a unsighted oculus to the atrocities that Russia has been committing successful Ukraine."
In a connection to The Associated Press connected Monday, Allen criticized Putin and denounced the penetration but called for taste exchanges to continue.
"When it comes to the struggle successful Ukraine, I judge powerfully that Vladimir Putin is wholly successful the wrong. The warfare helium has caused is appalling," Allen said. "But, immoderate politicians person done, I don't consciousness cutting disconnected creator conversations is ever a bully mode to help."
The website of the festival, which runs done Wednesday, billed Allen arsenic 1 of its headliners, on with Serbian movie manager Emir Kusturica and American histrion Mark Dacascos.
Moscow International Film Week is simply a comparatively caller festival, archetypal held successful the Russian superior successful August 2024. It is abstracted from the decades-old Moscow International Film Festival, which successful 2022 was stripped of its International Federation of Film Producers Associations accreditation pursuing the penetration of Ukraine.
Kusturica has been unfastened astir his enactment of Putin, including aft the invasion. He received an grant from Putin and attended a subject parade successful Moscow earlier this year.
Allen has agelong had an affinity for Russian lit and history. His 1975 drama "Love and Death" spoofs the fabrication of Tolstoy and different 19th period Russian novelists. The rubric of his 1989 merchandise "Crimes and Misdemeanors" echoes Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" and besides broods implicit the themes of wrongdoing, justness and guilt.
In the 1972 essay, "A Brief Guide to Civil Disobedience," Allen jokes astir the Russian Revolution, penning that the serfs rebelled erstwhile they "finally realized that the Czar and the Tsar were the aforesaid person."
English (US) ·