The opening film of the Cannes Film Festival, Z (comme Z) by Michel Hazanavicius, has come under the crosshairs of the Ukrainian Institute, Ukraine’s main cultural institution, which is part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The institute sent an official letter to the organization of the French film festival and to the director with a request to rename the film. This was reported by the newspaper Variety, which had seen the letter. The reason is that the Z could be a provocation due to the meaning it acquired with the beginning of the Russian invasion. The Z has become the symbol of the Russian Army and those supporting its military operations in Ukraine. Director General of the Ukrainian Institute Volodymyr Sheiko, who signed the letter, stated that the name change would become “a gesture against the barbarism, violence and terror of the Russian army”.
The director: “It’s too late”
The movie is actually about a small film crew that gets attacked by some zombies while making a movie about them. In addition, the international title is Final Cut, and the festival will refer to it, as the director pointed out. But the head of cinema at the Ukrainian Institute, Natalie Movshovych, noted that some local media in Russia have already “used the film’s title and published articles that could be summarized as: ‘See? They support us “». Therefore, he called on the artistic director Thierry Frémaux and the director of the film to stand up for “all the victims of Kyiv, Mariupol and Kharkiv”. The film’s director said he was “sad and helpless” at the situation, but added that it was now “too late” to change the title a few weeks before the festival.
The Institute not only challenged the Z of Hazanavicius’ film, but also the choice to screen Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov’s film Tchaikovsky’s Wife at the festival. The reason lies in the fact that he would maintain relations with the former Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov. The latter was defined by the Ukrainian Institute as “the architect of the Russian propaganda machine, directly responsible for the barbarian invasion now taking place in Ukraine”.
