It is grotesque to draw conclusions about the moral qualities of a person on the basis of origin. This opinion was expressed on Tuesday, May 24, by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, who is taking part in the 75th Cannes Film Festival.
“If you are an artist brought up in Russian culture, who needs you there?”
“This attitude is inhumane. <…> I am firmly convinced that people should be judged by their statements, their individual actions, and not by their passports. Each individual case must be considered on its merits,” he said in an interview with Agence France Press (AFP).
Earlier, on May 22, during the awards ceremony for his contribution to cinema in Cannes, Loznitsa delivered a speech in defense of Russian culture and appealed to his Western colleagues not to mix politics and creativity.
The director has already entered into a confrontation with compatriots on this issue. The position of “cosmopolitan” cost him membership in the film academy of Ukraine, from which Loznitsa was expelled on March 18.
On May 21, the international Rodolfo Lipitzer violin competition did not allow three violinists from Russia to participate. The head of the competition, Lorenzo Qualli, said that the decision was made following the example of similar measures in other international competitions.
On May 10, Serbian film director and film actor Emir Kusturica suggested that the goal of Western countries today is to abolish Russia as a whole people and ultimately wipe the country off the face of the earth. According to the director, the US can resort to the most extreme measures, including “limited nuclear war”, to get its way.
On March 1, it became known that the Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who was previously asked to take a clear position on the Russian special operation in Ukraine, was removed from the post of chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
Earlier, the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Bavarian State Opera broke off relations with opera singer Anna Netrebko, because she did not comply with the requirement to withdraw public support for Russian President Vladimir Putin against the backdrop of events in Ukraine.
On March 25, Putin, at a meeting with winners of awards in the field of culture and art, spoke about the “culture of cancellation” and the progressive discrimination of everything connected with Russia. The head of state specified that composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Rachmaninov are being “blacked out” in Western countries, and Russian writers are being banned.
Russian and Belarusian cultural figures are suspended from international events against the backdrop of the ongoing special operation to protect Donbass, the beginning of which was announced on February 24.