Woody Allen rebuts Ukrainian condemnation over Moscow film festival appearance | Movies

Woody Allen has denied claims that his participation in a Moscow movie pageant was “whitewashing” Russian atrocities, after condemnation of his look by Ukraine’s ministry of overseas affairs.Allen stated in a press release to the Guardian: “With regards to the battle in Ukraine, I imagine strongly that Vladimir Putin is completely within the unsuitable. The warfare he has induced is appalling. However, no matter politicians have completed, I don’t really feel chopping off creative conversations is ever a great way to assist.”Allen had appeared on Sunday at Moscow worldwide movie week, by way of a distant hyperlink for a session hosted by film-maker Fyodor Bondarchuk, a long-term political ally of Putin and director of patriotic epics similar to Stalingrad (2013) and the sci-fi movie Attraction.In a press release posted on social media, the ministry stated: “Woody Allen’s participation within the Moscow worldwide movie week is a shame and an insult to the sacrifice of Ukrainian actors and film-makers who’ve been killed or injured by Russian warfare criminals of their ongoing warfare towards Ukraine.”It added: “By collaborating in a pageant that brings collectively Putin’s supporters and voices, Allen chooses to show a blind eye to the atrocities Russia commits in Ukraine each single day for 11 years now. Tradition must not ever be used to whitewash crimes or function a propaganda instrument. We strongly condemn Woody Allen’s choice to bless Moscow’s bloody pageant together with his handle.”In accordance with reviews in Russian media, Allen stated that he had no plans to make a movie in Russia however that he had “solely good emotions for Moscow and St Petersburg”.Allen additionally reportedly stated he admired Russian cinema, singling out the four-film literary adaptation Struggle and Peace, directed by Bondarchuk’s father Sergei, which received the Oscar for greatest overseas language movie in 1969.Allen’s final two movies have been made with monetary backing from European sources: Rifkin’s Pageant in Spain, launched in 2020, and Coup de Likelihood in France, launched in 2023. This adopted the cancellation of his manufacturing association with Amazon in 2019; Allen sued Amazon and settled out of court docket. His authorized dispute with Amazon adopted an open letter revealed by Dylan Farrow in 2014 renewing the allegations that Allen had sexually abused her when she was seven, which Allen denies and of which he has been cleared after two investigations.In 2024, Allen urged he could retire, saying: “All of the romance of film-making is gone.”