Called himself the "voice of Ukraine" and defended Russian culture: it became known why the world considered the scandalous Serhii Loznitsa a "Ukrainian director"

This year, the famous Ukrainian writer and literary critic Oksana Zabuzhko joined the jury of the prestigious international Berlinale competition. According to the celebrity, European filmmakers are actively interested in her attitude to the scandalous "Ukrainian director" Serhii Loznitsa. Zabuzhko asks herself another question: "Why does a native of Belarus, who lived in Ukraine for only a few years, studied in Moscow, and emigrated to Germany, position himself as a 'Ukrainian'?

At the Berlinale, the writer received an answer not only to this question but also learned how Loznitsa defends Russian culture abroad and speaks disdainfully of Ukrainian culture. Zabuzhko shared the details with her Facebook followers.

"A European cinematic party started asking my opinion about the 'Ukrainian director Serhii Loznitsa'. For years now, I have consistently answered this question by saying that I don't understand why he is "Ukrainian" if he is a Belarusian by birth, lived in Ukraine for only a few years as a young man, left immediately after the collapse of the USSR, studied in Moscow, and then emigrated to Germany, and what does Ukraine have to do with it, and why is he so attached to it that he claims to be a Ukrainian everywhere... It turns out that for all these 30 years Loznitsa has been working for the international film community as the "voice of Ukraine," telling the audience on the sidelines of film festivals that his mission is to save Russian culture in his supposedly native Ukraine, because Ukrainian culture is too "small and provincial" (c) for a separate country, and without Russian culture, Ukraine will eventually become wild," Zabuzhko revealed.

The writer reminded her readers that they could hear similar narratives from Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, so it is quite obvious that Loznitsa is using his methodology to denigrate her "native" culture.

The author also noted that Loznitsa is not the only such character who positions himself abroad as a "Ukrainian" but in fact only harms Ukrainian society, culture, and the nation as a whole. Unfortunately, Ukrainians do not always understand who is really worthy of respect and honor and who is just pretending to be a prominent Ukrainian artist. Therefore, Zabuzhko urged her compatriots to consider this issue not superficially, but more deeply, without making heroes of those who are not worthy of it at all.

"According to my observations, for every significant field of culture, science, information, etc. in the West, there is an "alleged Ukrainian" who is well integrated into the relevant local institutions and who, on behalf of Ukraine, authoritatively plants Russian propaganda narratives in the virgin brains of their Western colleagues. And after 24.02.22, the number of such songbirds has only increased, so let's not rush to rejoice every time that "our flowers are all over the world," but first look closely to see if the flowers are "ours" or maybe they are from a completely different field," Zabuzhko aptly summarized.

As OBOZ.UA wrote, in May 2022, Loznitsa made a speech at the Cannes Film Festival in which he condemned the boycott of Russian culture against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. This gesture, which was treacherous to Ukraine, was condemned by his compatriots.

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