TALLINN, Estonia — The movie centers around a violinist from Belgium arriving to Kyiv to perform. It is February 2022, and his trip is upended as Russia starts bombing Ukraine. The artist survives a series of “inhuman crimes and bloody provocations by Ukrainian nationalists,” and he is ready to tell the world “what it was really like.”
“The Witness” — a state-sponsored drama that premiered in Russia on Aug. 17 — is the first feature film about the 18-month-old invasion. It depicts Ukrainian troops as violent neo-Nazis who torture and kill their own people. One wears a T-shirt with Hitler on it. The film also has the main character’s young son wondering: “Isn’t Ukraine Russia?”
It’s the narrative the Kremlin has been promoting since the first days of the war — all packaged up in a motion picture.
The release of “The Witness” comes after Russian authorities announced a plan to boost production of movies glorifying Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
Controlling imagery has been a regular feature of dictatorships. Propaganda films were produced in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Italy under Benito Mussolini — as well as in North Korea and the Middle East. In today’s Russia, authorities speak openly about their intention to bring the Ukraine war — or, rather, the Russian narrative around it — to the big screen.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Culture Ministry to ensure theaters screen documentaries about the “special military operation,” as the Kremlin calls its war in Ukraine. The ministry also has prioritized themes when allocating state funding for films, including “heroism and selflessness of Russian warriors” in Ukraine and “battling modern manifestations of the Nazi and fascist ideology” — a false accusation Putin makes about Kyiv’s leaders.
The amount of state funding that makers of Russian films can tap into this year is higher than ever: 30 billion rubles (about $320 million).
That’s a pivotal part of today’s industry, which has been heavily dependent on state funding for years.
Some Oscar nominees from Russia received state funding. And there were other domestic hits: widely watched historical dramas, sci-fi blockbusters, portrayals of legendary Soviet athletes.
After the 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea, the Kremlin’s narratives spilled into movie theaters. Two state-funded films were heavily promoted by state media: the 2017 film “Crimea” justified Moscow’s seizure of the peninsula, showing Ukrainians brutally beating and killing their compatriots; the 2018 state-sponsored romantic comedy focused on a Putin pet project — a bridge linking Crimea to the mainland — and depicted local residents thriving under Russia’s reign.
Both eventually failed at the box office.
At the time, Russians had an alternative: Hollywood blockbusters that were always much more successful. So much so that at some point Russia’s authorities started postponing releases of Hollywood hits that coincided with domestic movies they wanted to succeed.
“Any Spider-Man movie, any Marvel movie, any `Star Wars’, any American film earned a fortune in Russia,” said Ivan Philippov, creative executive at AR Content, production company of renowned film producer Alexander Rodnyansky.
“The Witness” premiered in Russia without much fanfare. At a movie theater in Moscow on a rainy Sunday afternoon last week, almost a dozen movie-goers said they came to see films other than “The Witness,” though several said they planned on watching it at some point. During its first weekend, it had earned just over 6.7 million rubles — or about $70,000.