Russian Director’s ‘Deaf Lovers’ Pulled From Tallinn Festival’s Ukrainian Section After Backlash

Jamie Lang

13 November 2024 at 2:02 pm·2-min read

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has removed Russian director Boris Guts’ “Deaf Lovers” from its Standing with Ukraine program after “serious backlash,” according to festival director Tiina Lokk.

In a release, Lokk said the Estonia-Serbia co-production, which will still world premiere in Tallinn’s official competition, has received negative reactions from both Ukrainians and Russians, even though nobody objecting to its inclusion has seen the film yet. On Tuesday, the State Film Agency of Ukraine called on Tallinn to pull the film entirely, but Lokk’s letter indicates that ‘Blind Lovers’ will still screen in the Official Selection Competition.

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A Tuesday social media post from the Ukrainian organization reads: “Given the aggression of Russia against Ukraine and the sufferings of the large number of Ukrainian people, it is of paramount importance to ensure that cultural platforms do not become tools for films blurring the boundaries of understanding the reality of Ukrainians.”

“Deaf Lovers” tells the modern-day story of a woman from Ukraine and a man from Russia who meet in Istanbul and kick off a penniless vacation romance. Both are, as the title implies, also deaf and worried about the future that awaits them back home.

Lokk says that her team can confirm that the Russian Federation was not involved in making the film and that its writer, Boris Guts, left Russia after the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine and has been living as a refugee in Europe. She also points out that Guts has been an outspoken critic of the current Russian regime and its activities in Ukraine.

As an organization, Tallinn has supported Ukrainian filmmaking since Russia invaded the country in 2022, and this year includes eight Ukrainian-produced or co-produced films in its program. Since 2022, Tallinn has refused to screen Russian and Belarusian state-funded films and, in that same year, brought a group of five Ukrainian projects that had been put on hold by the invasion to the Cannes festival.

Read the full letter from Tallinn director Tiina Lokk and her team below.

The Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) has always treated the Ukrainian country with great respect and sympathy. Our festival team has always been together with Ukrainian people who are currently fighting for their independence. Three years in a row we’ve organised charity auctions for Ukraine at the HÕFF festival. We’ve stopped screening Russian and Belarusian state-funded films already in 2022. We were the first to showcase Ukrainian film projects that had been put on hold due to the war at the world’s largest film festival, Cannes, to pave the way for them to go international.

Ukrainian films have been an important part of our festival programme. PÖFF 2024 isn’t an exception. Our programme includes eight Ukrainian-produced or co-produced films, as well as films on the theme of Ukraine.

One of these is Deaf Lovers, which has already had some serious backlash, not only among Ukrainians but also among Russians – without anyone having seen it yet.

We confirm that the film is not funded by the Russian Federation. Even more, its author, Boris Guts, left Russia after the outbreak of full-scale war, and has been living as a refugee in different European countries, currently in Serbia. He has repeatedly spoken out against the Russian war against Ukraine, and against the Putin regime.

Guts’s previous film, Minsk, based on the tragic events that took place in Belarus after the 2020 presidential elections, was shot in Estonia. It was supported by the Estonian Film Institute and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia. Minsk is banned in Belarus and Russia, and was screened at nearly 20 international film festivals in 2022, including PÖFF. Boris Guts’ newest film Deaf Lovers is a 100% independent film made with his own money and with a minimal budget. The film was shot in Istanbul with an international crew. Estonian authors have also contributed to the film, and it is co-produced by Estonian studio Max-Grip.

PÖFF has always supported independent voices, and kept the door open to all filmmakers whose films represent democratic values. This year’s edition features Israeli and Palestinian films side by side. PÖFF has also always shown films by oppositional Russian and Belarusian filmmakers who live in exile and represent different values from the official doctrine of their home countries. The same applies to Georgian opposition filmmakers fighting against the creeping censorship in their country.

We have removed Deaf Lovers from our Standing with Ukraine programme – in the heat of the moment, it is the only right thing to do. The film will be screening at the Official Selection Competition as planned. We continue to believe that this is an artistically powerful anti-war work that reaches into figurative language. The film tells the story of a Ukrainian girl and a Russian boy who happen to meet in Istanbul. At first there is sympathy between them, but the war in Ukraine brings conflict into their lives, culminating in violence against the girl. The girl refuses to accept violence — she is independent and leaves the boy. The film concludes that love between a Ukrainian girl and a Russian boy has become impossible in a war situation. As the girl says at the end of the film – “Maybe only after 100 years”. One can see here the metaphor of Ukraine leaving the violent Russian Empire.

Last but not least, the film also provides valuable polemical material on other very topical issues: who is the Russian director in exile, what is his identity, and how the film can be used for propaganda purposes.

We invite you to the cinema and look forward to a good discussion afterward. Just keep in mind—while freedom of expression is important, it’s essential to respect others as well. In our discussions, we avoid defamation, and follow the law. If anyone breaks these rules, the organizers of PÖFF are prepared to take action to protect everyone’s rights.

On behalf of the PÖFF team,

Tiina Lokk, Festival Director

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