Putting an end to the war in Donbass and telling the truth about the events of 2014 in Ukraine. These were Oliver Stone's goals when he was making his new film. The movie was presented at a film festival in Italy.
In his interview with Eugeny Popov, Oliver Stone shared the issues he reveals through the prism of the Ukrainian crisis.
- Mr. Stone, you know virtually everything about the Ukrainian crisis.
- No, I don't.
- But you decided to make a new documentary and that's a complicated task. Will it be the sequel to Ukraine on Fire or a completely new story?
Oliver Stone, director:
- No, Eugeny, I believe I need to tell you a couple of facts first. First, the director of the movie is Igor Lopatyonok, a man of Russian-Ukrainian origin. It's a sensitive matter for him. He directed the movie Ukraine on Fire, in which he masterfully depicted the Ukrainian issue. I'm in charge of the interviews. I believe in this project but I'm just one of the producers. I'm asking you to understand the difference. I support the project. My primary goal is to reveal the truth about Ukraine. I have a feeling that when the coup happened in January-February 2014, they hid something from the people. I have a feeling that something was wrong there, that the coverage of those events in the West had a political and ideological bias. We tried to fix the situation by filming Ukraine on Fire. This time, we're taking a look at Ukraine four years later. It's a complete mess. However, Igor doesn't lose hope and tries to reflect both sides of the situation, both hope and catastrophe.
- Did you manage to get the answers to the main questions, for example, who murdered the Heavenly Hundred?
- Oh, that's what you call them. I believe the interesting thing is that the film shows the theory they believe, with snipers on the roof, who worked for nationalist groups willing to topple the government. I believe the film shows that rather clearly. We show a couple of very curious shooting episodes on the Maidan.
- The movie trailer constantly mentions "Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia", "Russia is terrible", "Russia is occupying the territory". Is your movie about Ukraine or Russia?
- The film has a more complex concept at its core. Yes, some say that Russia's the only one to blame. I know that feeling because I had an interview with Vladimir Putin. People say various stupid things, some believe I serve Putin. I don't care because that's not true. My main aspiration is the search of the truth. During my entire career, I've been striving to know more than we usually know about the assassination of JFK, Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War, or Wall Street. That's what my life is about. That's the thing I hunt. The situation in Ukraine has great potential to become a movie plot. That's true. You can make a movie about some American girl of Ukrainian origin, whose granddad fought in WWII. She thinks he's a nice guy and so on. She arrives in Ukraine right in the middle of the Maidan crisis and discovers a very different story of her Ukrainian blood. I believe that would be an interesting movie. The situation when a person gets a different view of something is very attractive. Ukraine is far from being simple. The Russian-Ukrainian relationship isn't that simple, either. And Russia is also not that simple. I've always said that Russia should be the U.S.'s partner.
It's madness that the U.S. spends so much energy on creating an enemy out of a non-hostile country. I want to do everything possible to draw these two countries closer because that would make the world much safer and much more productive, frankly speaking, because we would be working hand in hand, tackling the issues of space travel, climate change, and planet contamination in general. That would be much better. We'd be fighting terrorism together and so on. But I believe many people in Western Europe and the USA want to create tensions, implement the strategy of creating tensions. In this context, Ukraine is one of the steps in this strategy. Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, and China are all other steps. Our position in the South China Sea is very proactive. Every day, we hold drills on the Russian border. I don't know if the U.S. will be able to juggle all these balls. But we must remember that such a thing as international pressure exists. When the U.S. wants to press the so-called "Ukrainian button" it does so. It's all pretty simple. It's easy to make the Ukrainian army violates the Russia border and so on. And, of course, let's not forget the civil war in Donbass.
The world is concerned about that subject and the U.S. must decide if it wants to add more tension. Everyone wants to move forward, to put an end to the fighting. Putin has repeatedly proposed to launch dialogue. But nobody from the U.S. wants to engage in dialogue. China says the same thing. We live in an odd world, where over the course of my life, the U.S. has become a global aggressor by many indicators.
- Don't you feel that you're fighting windmills like Don Quixote? You're fighting the U.S.'s propaganda and the top media agencies.
- Listen, I just try to keep my head on my shoulders. Don Quixote lost his head, I believe. I don't know, I'm not a big fan of fiction novels. But I feel that I'm not alone. Many want peace, some just don't understand how to achieve it. Sometimes they believe the propaganda they hear in their own country and get trapped by it. Many people worked on the so-called "Russian interference in the elections," which I believe to be utter nonsense and fake news. But that's the kind of story that stirs people up. So we need to keep our head on our shoulders. We need to keep cool regardless of the pressure. Our times are a very important period in world history. The pendulum can easily swing to the wrong side. I believe that the world has always been on fire. It constantly spins at lightning speed. Our times are hard indeed. I believe that Putin manages to keep calm. He's trying to communicate and be diplomatic.
- You've just mentioned the Russian interference in the American elections. As far as I understand, your movie has another plotline, the connection between the Russian interference and the Ukrainian crisis.
- Igor plunges into that. In his interviews, the goal he pursues is attracting journalists to take part in his investigation. They study facts and say, "Look, you all talk about Russian interference, but what is that exactly? That's something the Western intelligence is trying to tell you." Let's check out the Ukrainian interference on the same and even on a higher level. Ukraine seriously invested in the victory of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. Igor tries to show the whole picture. You're the one to judge and draw conclusions. I think he's got some pretty good evidence.
- Do you think Russia and Ukraine will ever be brotherly nations again?
- I hope so because it would be better for the world. It's not just two nations with a single culture. Many Ukrainians don't want to have anything in common with Russia. I'm talking about the citizens of Western or Central Ukraine. But the opinions of those who want to be together with Russia in terms of culture, language, and economy as well must be taken into account. Ukraine was doing much better when Russia was its partner and not its enemy. It was doing much better. The economy was severely damaged by the anti-Russian campaign by the West, whose aim was to separate Ukraine from its brotherly nation.
- How do you like the new president of Ukraine?
- I don't know much about him. I don't think he can do much. Other forces stand behind the president. He looks like a puppet. He seems like a nice guy but that means nothing. Nice guys don't get things done. Tough guys get things done.
- Have you changed your opinion on the Ukrainian crisis and the global crisis in the time between filming your two documentaries?
- No, Ukraine was a disaster in 2014. It was clear from the news. The catastrophe was serious. It resulted in sanctions and paralyzed the Russian-American relationship because it made Congress adopt various sanctions against Russia. 2014 was the apex, a very dangerous moment. I can't take that period lightly. Those times have hardly passed. The situation has gotten worse. As I've said before, it's a button that the U.S. can press anytime to engage the Ukrainian military, among other things. They can attempt to crush Donbass. They can try to move their heavy bases there. We'll see what happens.
- What should Russia do in this case?
- This is a game of waiting. That's the way Putin's been playing and he remains patient.
