Screenings of Sergei Loznitsa’s award-winning film Donbass, centred on the civil war involving pro-Russia forces in Ukraine, were cancelled in Moscow on Saturday. The Hollywood Reporter said that the film was scheduled to be screened at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in the Russian capital on Saturday and Sunday, but organisers scrapped the event at the last minute citing technical reasons.
Donbass explores the effects of propaganda and fake news against the backdrop of the conflict between Ukrainian nationalists and supporters of the pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic in the eastern Ukranian region in 2014-15. It won Loznitsa the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
Russian network REN TV reported that screenings were cancelled because the film did not have an exhibition licence, which is issued by the Culture Ministry. However, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the ministry has made allowances in the past for films screened at venues other than movie theatres, such as museums and art centres. The report said Donbass might be a “special case” because “the portrayal of pro-Russian rebels in the film differs substantially from official Russian reports”.
According to Jay Weissberg’s review in Variety, “Corruption and humiliation are the guiding forces of Donbass, resulting in a scathing portrait of a society where human interaction has descended to a level of barbarity more in keeping with late antiquity than the so-called contemporary civilized world... No one comes out clean, but how could they, when years of manipulation have malignantly stirred animosities on both sides?”