News - Festival planned in Armenia canceled after Russian film director writes about Azerbaijan ‘Victory Day’

The Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography (YSITC) has decided to cancel the Artdocfest festival it was going to host. The reason, according to the YSITC statement, is Artdocfest chairman, film director Vitaliy Manski’s social media post, where he published a photo Thursday from the airport of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and wrote with great enthusiasm that he was lucky enough to be in that country twice on the "Victory Day" of Azerbaijan. Manski added that he was so impressed by this "Victory Day" the first time that now he came to depict the festive atmosphere. The Artdocfest was supposed to take place between November 23 and 26 at the YSITC. It has been two years since this festival was banned in Russia, as a result of which it was moved to the Armenian capital, Yerevan. And after the decision to cancel Artdocfest at the YSITC, Vitaliy Manski on Thursday made a post on Facebook and wrote as follows: "I almost never delete my posts. But today my friends from Yerevan called and said that many people in Armenia misunderstood my text about leaving for Baku. I deleted the post and will try to explain. Indeed, the word ‘impressed’ could be read as approval. But it means that what I saw in Baku left a strong emotional impression on me. "And what I saw convinces [me] that the war is not over, despite all the Victory Days. The future remains tragic for Armenia in such a neighborhood. I plan to come to Yerevan and continue this difficult conversation face-to-face about a world doomed to war. "By the way, the film ‘Nina's Children’ about the Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] war is included in the screening program. I hope that we will have a chance to talk during the discussion of this film. “P.S. As for filming in Baku, this is an episode for a great anti-war film that is being filmed in various countries around the world. The Azerbaijani authorities didn't invite us, they didn't pay [us] anything, and we filmed it with great difficulty."