Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, accustomed to controversy both about his films and his public statements, defended himself on Thursday after the publication of a post on Instagram critical of the donations of Danish F-16s to Ukraine.
“Russian lives matter also”, he wrote on Tuesday in English on this social network after the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Denmark where he inspected F-16s which must be delivered in his country, together with the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen. His message was addressed “to Messrs. Vladimir Putin, Zelensky, not forgetting Mrs. Frederiksen, who yesterday, like a young enamored girl, posed with a smile from ear to ear in the cockpit of one of the most frightening killing machines From our era”. This text, whose comments have been deactivated, had attracted the attention of the Russian and Ukrainian media.
“I was just stating the obvious: all lives in this world matter. A forgotten phrase, it seems, from a time when pacifism was a virtue,” the 67-year-old director explained in a new post on Thursday. In recent days, the Danish press had wondered about this release of Lars von Trier who had said in 2011 “compassion” with Hitler, before apologizing for these remarks. In an interview with the daily Politiken, the academic Jakob Baek Kristensen had estimated that Russia welcomed “with open arms” the first comments of the director. “He supports the idea that it is not Russia that is a ruthless aggressor, but that it is a legitimate conflict in which Russia is equally unhappy whenever it suffers losses”, had explained the researcher, specialist in social networks.
Heavyweight of Danish cinema, Lars von Trier has directed more than 14 often disturbing and sometimes violent feature films. Known for being an original follower of black humor, this Copenhagen native had the word “FUCK” tattooed on his fingers. He was awarded a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 for Dancer in the Dark.
