Russian dissident Anastasia Shevchenko successfully obtained a Canadian visa to attend Toronto Film Festival , just after a short film about her Anastasia , originally scheduled to screen here.
After the world premiere of Australian director Sarah McCarthy’s film about Shevchenko in Telluride, the Russian activist was unable to get her listed by the Russian government After being placed on the wanted list, the US-Canada border.
But due to red tape, Shevchenko will be attending Friday afternoon’s premiere at the Scotiabank Theater. Delays or denials in obtaining Canadian visas are an annual occurrence for the Toronto Film Festival, which invites directors and their film themes and actors from around the world.
Canadian embassies consider factors such as criminal activity, security or economic reasons when weighing whether to allow entry into Canada.
Director The Voice of Mumbai and The Dark Matter of Love directed this portrait of Shevchenko and her resistance to Putin’s regime in Russia and how that paid off. She was placed under house arrest for two years for her involvement in the Open Russia campaign and was convicted of “organizing the activities of a bad organization”. Amnesty International declared Shevchenko a “prisoner of conscience”.
Toronto did not produce any films for Russian directors this year, and earlier banned Russian-backed film organizations and media from attending. Whereas Russian troops invaded Ukraine .
Meanwhile, Toronto has shown solidarity with Ukrainian filmmakers in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, during their participation in the Canadian Film Festival
47 with two industry panel discussions.
