More than 370 directors, producers, screenwriters and animators from the world of Russian animation have come together to publish an open letter condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The letter, which was published in the independent Russian daily Novaya Gazeta, said “the animation community in Ukraine and Russia is one and indivisible: we work together, we watch each other’s films for many years. The art of animation is also the art that helps people feel human. Don’t kill, don’t destroy. To log in.
“And today our children and our brothers are sent to kill those with whom, until recently, they played in the same yard and watched the same cartoons, without distinguishing whether they were Russian or Ukrainian.”
The letter noted that “animation – and art in general – has always been imbued with an anti-war spirit. We believe that today’s hostilities are not only directed against our Ukrainian friends and colleagues, but against all human beings, humanity and man in general. He concluded by saying that there was “no justification for bombing and killing! “
The list of signatories includes 101-year-old legendary Soviet and Russian animator Leonid Shvartsman, known to international audiences for animating iconic Russian character Cheburashka, 80-year-old director Youry Norstein who was behind classic animated shorts such as The fox and the hare and Hedgehog in the fogalong with other octogenarians Andrey Krzhanovsky (Shar – The Ball) and Garry Bardin (Choo Choo), director Konstantin Bronzit, twice nominated for an Oscar for his short films Toilet Love Affair and We can’t live without cosmosscreenwriter Mikhail Lipskerov (The wolf and the calf) and director Mariya Muat (Metel).