BY
Most readers
will remember the classic propaganda films such as Triumph of Will (1935), and
Casablanca (1942) and perhaps even Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) –
films (among many) that were meant to mold the public consciousness at a time
of war.
The Cold War
too, saw a continued cinematic line of propaganda that sought to unite the
constituency pysche around an awareness of threat and national unity in
defiance of competing propaganda (among other reasons).
Just under a
year ago the blog listened to, and latterly chatted at considerable length
with, an Ambassador from an EU nation regarding Russian propaganda.
The
Ambassador being an erudite and insightful individual raised the point that
despite numerous signals and an awareness of heightening propaganda emanating
from The Kremlin for several years prior to events in Ukraine and the
subsequent gushing forth of such nonsense immediately prior to the illegal
annexation of Crimea (and ever since) questioned why there had been no
interest (or perhaps encouragement and/or collaboration) with the film
industry to tackle the issue when it had worked so effectively before.
Indeed at the
time much to the ire of said Ambassador, the only related movie due to be
released was Snowden which hardly depicted him as the treacherous individual he
is. Perhaps an Assange movie will depict him as some form of Messiah?
(Maybe it is little wonder some such as Daniel Domscheit-Berg left the
organisation long ago.)
Perhaps there
will now be a growing interest from the cinematic community with Kremlin
shenanigans now being overtly recognised across Europe (France, Germany, Italy
and The Netherlands will feature on the Kremlin (and Wikileaks) agenda this
year) and, of course, most recently the USA.
How effective
such propaganda was and/or will be undoubtedly will become a field of numerous
academic studies yet to be published. It is therefore not for the blog to
draw conclusions based upon very little.
At present,
for the purposes of this entry, it is necessary only to accept that there was
an intention to utilize propaganda (notwithstanding active measures and
reflexive control) and that such propaganda was demonstrably delivered
effectively to the point whereby dedicated myth-busting organisations (both
voluntary and State run) emerged to counter Russian efforts – rightly (and too
often belatedly) so.
And so to
Ukraine, now in its third year of war with Russia and marking another
anniversary of the Minsk document failing to deliver even a ceasefire in the
years since it came into existence.
Arguably the
only film from Ukraine relating to the recent tumult (and that portrays events
that led to the ouster of Yanukovych) that has been produced (and seen any
recognition outside the nation) has been Winter on Fire.
Now however
“Cyborgs” is to hit the big (Ukrainian) screen soon (and probably streamed to
the diaspora) on 6th December – a date no doubt deliberately chosen to mark the
eventual fall of Donetsk Airport.
Needless to
say Cyborgs relates to the dedication of those who defended Donetsk Airport
valiantly for so long and against such odds. Hopefully, considering there
are many Cyborgs still alive and well, whatever is released will meet with
their approval and not go too far into the realms of fantasy and unnecessary
myth-making.
The place of
the Cyborgs is already cemented within contemporary Ukrainian history without
the need for unnecessary embellishment. Their criticism would undermine
the obvious propaganda that will come with this film.
However,
accuracy aside (albeit anybody who takes the film The Battle of Britain (1969)
as accurate is misled), the target audience is clearly Ukrainians and the
propaganda will be aimed, as all films released during war, at consolidating
the national constituency around the Ukrainian identity and the (genuine)
heroics of those that are prepared to give (and gave) all.
Yon
aforementioned Ambassador may still be dismayed that a continuing war in Europe
now in its third year has not galvanised western cinema into action, but
eventually the Ukrainian film makers have made a start. It now remains to
be seen how effective at identity consolidation and perception framing this
film will be when most have long since chosen their patriotic stance.
It may however, re-energise some wearying souls.
Thus how it
would be received outside of Ukraine would be interesting when it comes to
shifting perceptions nevertheless.
(It’s
probably just as well there is no House of Cards or Yes Minister known to be in
the Ukrainian pipeline.)
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