DAU director renounced Russian citizenship, rejects Ukraine's call for Venice to pull film

Khrzhanovsky posted a point-by-point Facebook rebuttal after Ukraine's foreign and culture ministries demanded Venice drop DAU from competition on 17 August 2026. He wrote that he renounced his Russian citizenship in protest against the war, that DAU "is not a Russian film," and that sanctioned financier Sergei Adoniev's funding ended in 2019, before sanctions. Venice director Barbera called the backlash "an inexplicable smear campaign" (Variety, 19 August 2026; The Hollywood Reporter, 20 August 2026).