Barbera Defends Venice 'DAU' Selection as 'Not Pro-Putin'
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- Alberto Barbera defended the inclusion of "DAU" in an Instagram post, calling the criticism a "petty and unacceptable act" and insisting the film is "not pro-Putin propaganda" but "denounces totalitarian regimes and their intrusion into citizens' lives."
- Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture, and Embassy in Italy issued a joint statement calling Venice's platform for the film "a deeply worrying signal," flagging actor Teodor Currentzis's Russian citizenship "conferred on him by Vladimir Putin" and funding from businessman Sergei Adoniev, sanctioned by the U.S. in 2023 and Ukraine in 2022.
- Barbera cast Khrzhanovsky as "a Russian dissident" placed on the regime's blacklist as a "terrorist and enemy of the state" who has opposed the invasion of Ukraine "from the very beginning."
- "DAU" was principally filmed from 2008 to 2011 in Kharkiv, Ukraine — a decade before the 2022 invasion — with early development partly funded by the Ukrainian State Film Agency in 2012, using 400 non-actors on a massive closed set.
- "DAU" will compete for the Golden Lion in September as the third installment of a projected 14-film series, following "DAU. Natasha," which won the Silver Bear at Berlin in 2022.
- The Venice Biennale faced a parallel controversy earlier this year when granting pavilions to Israel and Russia triggered mass jury resignations and the withdrawal of dozens of artists.
Why it matters: The standoff tests Venice's claim to programming autonomy against direct diplomatic pressure from a country at war, with the festival defending artistic freedom while Kyiv argues prestigious platforms carry political weight. Barbera's case leans heavily on a fact that complicates Ukraine's framing: principal filming happened in Kharkiv and drew Ukrainian state funding a decade before the invasion — though that doesn't resolve Ukraine's concerns about current Russian-state-linked collaborators on the project.
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