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Woody Allen said that while he believed the war in Ukraine was “appalling”, his participation in a Russian film festival was not insulting to the victims of the raging conflict.
He was responding after the Ukrainian foreign ministry condemned his appearance as a “disgrace”.
Allen, 89, appeared at the Moscow International Film Week via video conference on Sunday in a session moderated by director Fyodor Bondarchuk.
The multiple Oscar winner reportedly praised Russian cinema and said he would like to make a movie in Russia if he had an opportunity.
“I have been to Moscow and St Petersburg. I’ve always liked Russian cinema. I had the pleasure of meeting Sergei Bondarchuk a few years ago in New York. I watched the Russian film War and Peace which is almost seven hours long. I watched it in one day,” Allen said, according to a translation of a RIA Novosti report.
Allen was referring to the four-film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s 1869 novel War and Peace, made by Fyodor Bondarchuk’s father Sergei Bondarchuk in 1965. The film won the Oscar for best foreign language film.
“If there were similar proposals, I would sit down and think about what the script could be about how well you feel in Moscow and St Petersburg,” Allen said.
In a statement on social media on Monday, the Ukrainian foreign ministry described Allen’s appearance at the festival as a “disgrace and an insult” to those killed as a result of the war in Ukraine.
“Woody Allen’s participation in the Moscow International Film Week is a disgrace and an insult to the sacrifice of Ukrainian actors and filmmakers who have been killed or injured by Russian war criminals in their ongoing war against Ukraine,” the ministry said.
“By taking part in a festival that brings together Putin’s supporters and voices, Allen chooses to turn a blind eye to the atrocities Russia commits in Ukraine every single day for 11 years now. Culture must never be used to whitewash crimes or serve as a propaganda tool. We strongly condemn Woody Allen’s decision to bless Moscow’s bloody festival with his address.”
In a statement to the Associated Press, Allen denounced the Russian president and said he was “totally in the wrong” but cultural conversations must continue.
“When it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, I believe strongly that Vladimir Putin is totally in the wrong. The war he has caused is appalling. But, whatever politicians have done, I don’t feel cutting off artistic conversations is ever a good way to help,” he said.
The festival’s website billed Allen as one of its headliners, along with Serbian film director Emir Kusturica and American actor Mark Dacascos.
Moscow International Film Week is a relatively new festival, first held in the Russian capital in August 2024.
It is separate from the decades-old Moscow International Film Festival, which in 2022 was stripped of its International Federation of Film Producers Associations accreditation following the invasion of Ukraine.
Allen hinted at retirement last year after finishing the erotic thriller ‘Coup de Chance’ (Getty)
Allen has long had an affinity for Russian literature and history. His 1975 comedy Love and Death spoofs the fiction of Tolstoy and other 19th century Russian novelists. The title of his 1989 release, Crimes and Misdemeanors, echoes Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and also broods over the themes of wrongdoing, justice and guilt.
Allen’s popularity as a filmmaker has diminished in recent years amid the MeToo movement and renewed interest in allegations of sexual abuse from his adopted stepdaughter Dylan Farrow.
In April last year, Allen hinted at retirement after finishing his 50th feature – French-language erotic thriller Coup de Chance – which he claimed could be his last film.
“I’m on the fence about it,” he said. “The whole business has changed, and not in an appealing way. All the romance of filmmaking is gone.”