Kiev has apparently decided to move its war on everything Russian to the movies screens – this time in the US. Ukraine’s embassy has urged US cinemas to stop showing a Russian WWII film, calling it “propaganda.”
The diplomatic mission “called [on] cinemas to reconsider their intension to show it because the film openly justifies and promotes Moscow’s hostile foreign and security policy (including Russian ongoing aggression against Ukraine),” the embassy said in its appeal posted on Facebook.The story centers on a group of Soviet soldiers, which consists not only of Russians but people from other Soviet republics like Belarus, fighting for their lives against the Nazis.
The film does not contain anything that could be interpreted as remotely anti-Ukrainian. However, the diplomats, who never bothered to watch the movie in the first place, apparently decided they needed to be outraged over its distribution within the borders of Ukraine’s cherished “ally,” just because it’s Russian.
As a result, T-34 was canceled in San Francisco, while in Boston it was simply moved to another cinema. The film warriors immediately earned the praise of the diplomats, who called on other Ukrainians in the US to join the cause, publishing a list of cinemas planning to show the movie.
People on social media seemed unamused with the tireless efforts of the Ukrainian diplomats, combating what is literally a fictional “Russian threat,” as they mocked the embassy’s appeal.
“Have you even seen the movie? It is about our T-34 [produced] in Kharkov [now, Ukraine’s second largest city]… it has [a] multiethnic crew,” one person wrote.
“It’s a good patriotic film. It teaches [you] to love your country – Ukraine, Russia, the US… and hate Fascism. Kiev apparently cannot allow that,” another said.