“My real homeland is a country where I can work, where I can make movies,” says Russian filmmaker Boris Guts, following controversy around the selection of his latest feature Deaf Lovers at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF).
Guts’ fifth feature Deaf Lovers was selected in PÖFF’s main Official Selection Competition, and in the ‘Standing With Ukraine’ thematic strand of titles about and from the war-afflicted country. Its selection received criticism on social media and in the Estonian press, with festival director Tiina Lokk issuing a statement on Thursday, November 13. Lokk stood by the film’s selection, keeping it in the competition but withdrawing it from the Ukraine programme.
Set in Istanbul, Deaf Lovers follows a Ukrainian girl and Russian boy, who first find connection then come to disagreement over the ongoing war, culminating in violence against the girl. Guts describes it as “a metaphor about modern life… [not just] of Ukrainian and Russian citizens, but people in wars around the whole planet. Very aggressive relationships.”
The director says he first became aware of criticisms on November 8 via comments on his personal social media page. “Somebody threatened me and wanted my family and I to go to hell,” says Guts. Lokk also received abusive comments via social media.
Guts says none of these online commenters – or anyone else beyond its makers - had seen the film at this stage, nine days before its world premiere at PÖFF on November 17. It is independently-funded to “a low budget”, and shot over 10 days in Istanbul. “I don’t like government money, because censorship follows,” says Guts.
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Anti-war
Born in the Siberian city of Omsk in Russia and based in Belgrade in Serbia for several years, Guts rejects the idea that films should be excluded based purely on the nationality of the filmmaker. “I haven’t lived in Russia for years, and I’m against the war,” he says. He “understands” the anger, because “Ukrainians have pain [from this] very big tragedy… and where somebody is making a movie about it, if he is Russian it’s a big drama.”
“If I go back to Russia I will go to prison, 100%,” says Guts, adding that he has brought his mother out of the country too, having not been able to see her for an extended period.
The Deaf Lovers world premiere went ahead, with increased festival security due to rumours of protests from Ukrainians unhappy at its inclusion. The protests never materialised, and Guts says he was able to participate in a standard post-screening Q&A, in which the political aspect was discussed without friction.
“Normal questions, I hope I gave normal answers,” he says. “I wanted more questions about cinema, but I understand I cannot hide from politics.”
The following day he headed to Goa’s International Film Festival of India, where he says he spoke with Ukrainians who had been at the PÖFF screening, and had no problem with the film. The criticisms have ceased online too. “After the premiere, silence,” as he puts it.
Guts is grateful to Lokk and PÖFF for standing by him in the face of what he believes is attempted censorship. “Censorship is the biggest damage to art in our world,” says Guts. “When we stop movies, paintings, music – it’s a death for all.”
He is keen to highlight the impersonalisation created by social media. “We forget how to listen,” says the director. “Somebody writes to me, ‘Burn in hell, motherfucker!’ – I don’t know how to react to this. Who are you? Why do you call me and tell me I’m a bad Russian?”
Guts’ previous feature Minsk was banned in Russia and Belarus prior to its release, due to its depiction of the rallies following the 2020 Belarus elections, widely regarded to have been rigged. With three films in development, set in Serbia, Germany and France respectively, his next projects will not be about politics; but he is not shying away from difficult topics, with the first of them about “problems in the Catholic Church.”
“If I cannot realise my ideas in Russia, I will find other places – Estonia, Istanbul, Berlin, I have some ideas for France,” says Guts. “I don’t want Hollywood, but I love American independent films – Todd Solondz, Jim Jarmusch. So maybe some time, the USA.”
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