Israel Partners With Russia — On Movies: New Deal Draws Backlash Amid Global Conflict With Ukraine

Russia has seen backlash from countries around the world after invading Ukraine in February 2022.

While many countries and companies are distancing themselves from operations in Russia, Israel signed a new partnership with the country that has seen immediate backlash.

What Happened: While the U.S. and other regions have attempted to support the filmmaking industry of Ukraine during the ongoing war with Russia, Israel is taking the other side.

Israel has partnered with Russia in a filmmaking pact, according to Deadline.

The partnership between Russia and Israel will see the countries “create films together and work with film archives,” according to Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, as reported by the Jerusalem Post.

“We look forward to seeing Israeli filmmakers in the competition programs of our international film festivals and in public discussions. We are also preparing to expand the distribution capabilities of Russian-Israeli films,” Lyubimova said.

The partnership was reached after 15 years of negotiations that were first started by Israel according to the report.

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Why It’s Important: Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the international film community, including the major U.S. film companies, have stopped releasing movies in Russia. Several of the media companies have left Russia completely.

According to Variety, Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ: WMD) were among the companies that suspended trade with Russia. The Jerusalem Post article mentions The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), Sony Group Corp (NYSE: SONY), Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA)(NASDAQ: PARAA) and Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) as companies that no longer show their films in Russia.

While the partnership between Israel and Russia could be a one off with other countries continuing to avoid the country with their films and movie and television companies looking to avoid the region, it will be worth following to see if anyone sees this as an opening to work in Russia again. 

Any movie and television companies partnered in Israel or on Israeli films could see difficult decisions coming for movies that could end up being screened in or financed by Russia. 

Israeli-Ukrainian Alliance co-founder and CEO Anna Zharova was among those who expressed their outrage to the deal that was announced Wednesday.

“(The partnership comes) in the midst of a full-scale war, where a terrorist country with a dictatorial regime invaded the territory of an independent state, and in which cinema and theater today became the main instruments of fascist propaganda,” Zharova wrote.

Zharova said the partnership needs to be frozen.

“Have our Ministry of Culture and Foreign Affairs completely lost their minds?!”

Israeli producer Danna Stern said the partnership signed was “unfortunate, obtuse and wrong on multiple levels,” in a comment to Variety.

“As an Israeli producer now based in Europe I would have liked to see the Israeli government using its time, resources and focus to collaborate with Creative Europe for example and foster relationships and treaties with countries and producers on the right side of history,” Stern told Variety.

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