Aid to Ukraine, civilians who are unlawfully detained by the Russian Federation, countering Putin’s propaganda Oleksandra Romantsova spoke at the Pordenone Docs Fest

On 11 April, Oleksandra Romantsova, Executive Director of the Center for Civil Liberties, spoke at one of the events within the Pordenone Docs Fest, a festival of documentary films held in Pordenone, Italy. 

Pordenone Docs Fest highlights pressing issues ranging from human rights to environmental challenges, and from well-known to forgotten wars. Each year, the festival brings the best international documentary films, distinguished by awards and national premieres. Moreover, guests from Italy and beyond come to attend the event, and meetings and lectures are held within it.  

Oleksandra had a public dialogue with Francesco Strazzari, Professor of Political Science at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa and lecturer at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, whose latest book was «Ukraine on the Border. War, Geopolitics and International Order».

«It is one of the most famous documentary film and investigative journalism festivals in Europe, and at the same time, its impact on the Italian intellectuals and young generation is crucial. It was both an important and, at the same time, pleasant decision to dedicate a couple of days of my vacation to promoting the narratives of helping Ukraine, the situation with civilians unlawfully detained by Russia and countering Putin’s propaganda. 

The festival reserved a separate evening for this meeting, and the room was packed. Apart from my speech, that evening, a documentary film, The Kyiv Files, by a Dutch director was screened, which also revealed how close the current Putin regime is to the KGB dictatorship of the USSR», — Oleksandra shares. 

Giulia Torrini, a member of the National Committee of Un Ponte Per, an association of international solidarity that has been operating in the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans for thirty years, implementing cooperation programmes to promote peace and human rights, also spoke at the event. 

The discussion was followed by a screening of The Kyiv Files, a documentary by Dutch director Walter Stockman about the long history of Russia’s persecution of Ukraine.