Antenna Documentary Film Festival: Stop the screening of 'russians at War' - Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations

Campaign date: Early February 2025

Issue: On 10 and 14 February 2025, the Antenna Documentary Film Festival screened russians at War – a film which normalises russian aggression, spreads toxic misinformation and betrays shared Ukrainian and Australian democratic values.

Filmed in occupied Ukraine from the front-lines of russia’s invasion, Director Anastasia Trofimova claims she has made an ‘independent anti-war documentary” about russian soldiers, but the facts are indisputable:

Trofimova, previously worked for RT (russia Today) for 7 years. RT is a widely sanctioned, state-controlled media outlet banned in many countries, including Australia, for spreading propaganda.
The director has referred to russian soldiers as “heroes”, and “absolutely ordinary guys”, denying Russia’s history of military aggression against multiple sovereign nations.
Trofimova spent 7 months embedded with russian forces. This is impossible without Kremlin approval from the Ministry of Defense, FSB, and GRU (note the assassinations, poisoning, and imprisonment of individuals who have spoken out against the Kremlin regime).
The film omits to say that more than 147,000 russian war crimes have been documented in Ukraine, and fails to acknowledge that russia’s invasion violates international law.
Trofimova calls this an ‘anti-war’ film, although the penalty for this in russia is a minimum seven years imprisonment (as faced by other russian anti-war documentarians).
russian soldiers are presented as ”normal people” while ignoring their role in civilian deaths, terrorist attacks, torture, rape, and the mass kidnapping of Ukrainian children. To use empathy or compassion without accountability is disinformation.
The film repeats standard russian propaganda tropes, including that Ukrainian lands are part of russia, that Ukrainians are ‘Nazis’, and that a Kremlin-backed regime should be installed in Kyiv.
The screening increased anti-Ukrainian hate speech and online threats in Australia.

This is not a war on artistic expression – we’re talking about propaganda.

We cannot accept that in modern-day Australia.

The Kremlin understands that eroding Western support for Ukraine is just as crucial as battlefield victories. Films like this serve that purpose. They inject doubt, create false moral equivalence, and sap the will of democratic societies to stand with Ukraine.

As a publicly funded film festival, content should challenge audiences, but never present pro-Kremlin propaganda for Australians to consume.

Campaign actions: Led by the Ukrainian Council of NSW, the AFUO and fellow Ukrainian community members, the campaign:

Held three separate peaceful protests, demanding Antenna Documentary Film Festival remove russians at War from their programming.
Launched a Call to Action, a community email campaign targeted at Antenna Festival organisers and sponsors. The campaign was promoted extensively on social media by all AFUO state hromada organisations and local community groups, resulting in over 1,350 emails being collected.
Lodged formal letters of protest from the AFUO, Ukrainian Council of NSW, Ukrainian Embassy to ask for the film’s removal. Correspondence with festival leadership can be found below:

Campaign outcomes:

The AFUO held meetings with the offices of the Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke MP, to address the issue. Matters discussed included:
- the nature of russian propaganda in Australia
- the lack of due diligence conducted by festival organisers into the film’s origins, funding and alleged ‘independence’
- the role the Australian Government should play in ensuring that relevant agencies, such as film funding bodies, are properly resourced to identify and address foreign disinformation, as recommended in the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee inquiry report on Australian support for Ukraine.
Conducted media outreach about the issue:
Secured support from independent observers, including the Italian Cultural Institute as well as Australian creatives such as Simon Target, a British Australian filmmaker.