In December 2014, Stone made statements supporting the Russian government's narrative on Ukraine, portraying the 2014 Ukrainian revolution as a CIA plot. He also refutes the claim that former Ukrainian president (who was ousted as a result of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution) Viktor Yanukovych, was responsible for the killing of protesters as claimed by the new Ukrainian government. He said Yanukovych was the legitimate president who was forced to leave Ukraine by "well-armed, neo-Nazi radicals". He said that in "the tragic aftermath of this coup, the West has maintained the dominant narrative of ’Russia in Crimea’ whereas the true narrative is ’USA in Ukraine’".[188][189][190][191][192][193] The University of Toronto's Stephen Velychenko, the author of several books on Ukrainian history, and James Kirchick of The Daily Beast criticized Stone's comments and plans for a film (Ukraine on Fire, 2016).[194][195]
In a June 2017 interview with The Nation to promote his documentary on Vladimir Putin, Stone rejected the consensus findings of the United States’ intelligence agencies that Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential election. Stone accused the CIA, FBI, and NSA of cooking the intelligence. He said: "The influence on the election from the Russians to me is absurd to the naked eye. Israel has far more influence on American elections through AIPAC. Saudi Arabia has influence through money... Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers have much more influence on American elections... And the prime minister of Israel comes to our country and addresses Congress to criticize the president's policy in Iran at the time—that's pretty outrageous."[196]
Russia passed a law in 2013 banning the targeting of minors in the propagandizing of homosexuality.[197] In a 2019 interview with Putin, Stone said of the law that "It seems like maybe that's a sensible law". Stone later said he's not anti-gay/LGBTQ.[198][199]
Stone voluntarily took the Russian Sputnik V vaccine for the COVID-19 virus, despite being a decade older than the recommended maximum age for it. He also said it was "madness" that their vaccine was being ignored, and further added, "Russia’s been one of the most advanced countries, if not the most advanced country."[200]
| Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Evgeny Afineevsky |
| Produced by | Evgeny Afineevsky Den Tolmor Pavlo Peleshok Yuri Ivanyshyn |
| Narrated by | Cissy Jones |
Release dates | 3 September 2015 (Venice Film Festival) 9 October 2015 (Worldwide) |
Running time | 102 minutes |
| Countries | Ukraine United States United Kingdom |
| Languages | Ukrainian Russian English |
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (Ukrainian: Зима у вогні: Боротьба України за свободу, Zyma u vohni: Borot'ba Ukrayini za svobodu) is a 2015 documentary film about the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine from 21 November 2013 to 23 February 2014.
Produced in part by Netflix, this film is a coproduction of Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom.[1]
Winter on Fire was screened at various film festivals before its release on 9 October 2015 on the online streaming service.[2][3]
The film had its world premiere at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.[4] At the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, it won the People's Choice Award for best documentary.[5]
On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 88%, based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5.[6] It also has a score of 79 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]
Stephen Farber from The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, stating that "Afineevsky found a variety of witnesses, including student activists, journalists, laborers, artists and clergy, who all add sharp voices to the collage. One of the most engaging of these interviewees is a 12-year-old boy who offers a remarkably unjaundiced view of the turmoil." He praised the editing and music, but criticized the fact that "the film does grow repetitive, partly because it provides so little historical context or a larger overview of how the growing authoritarianism of Putin’s Russia is affecting this part of the world. Yet there are unmistakably moving moments that convey the brutality of the government’s response to an authentic popular movement".[8]
Jay Weissberg from Variety stated that Winter on Fire is an "accessible film, with greater TV appeal, but it’s also more limited by its insistence on shoehorning everything into one perspective, albeit a perspective shared by the majority of Ukrainians."[9]
Dan Fainaru of Screen Daily wrote, "Consistently avoiding any attempt at political analysis, Afineevsky’s cameras show ever-expanding crowds, young and old, men and women, Christians, Jews, Muslims, academics and proletarians, all united under the one common cause, the removal of a man who, in their eyes, embodied the concept of corruption. Often exasperated by the politicians who were supposed to represent them and who cheated them, these people were willing to die, if necessary, to achieve their goal, displaying an idealistic fervour (i.e. the joined support of all religions) rarely encountered in normal circumstances". He also praised Will Znidaric for the editing, calling it "brisk and energetic".[10]
Eric Kohn from IndieWire gave it a grade "A-" on scale of A to F, stating that "Winter on Fire features the intensity of an action movie and the fury of a clear-eyed polemic. [...] An exciting montage of the developing crowd ends with close to a million protestors gathered together at the centre of town in a stunning act of defiance. [...] Despite the ongoing power of these scenes, Winter on Fire achieves its finest shot with a bird’s eye view of the Maidan protests, as thousands of activists push back against a black mass of officers and congeal into an insurmountable wall. With images like these, Afineevsky doesn’t need to push the message about the protesters’ durability; it’s right there on the screen."[11]
Critics Lev Golinkin, Amy Cooter and Jay Weissberg criticized the film for showing several symbols and flags described as "neo-Nazi symbols used by extreme right wing protesters, left uncommented in the film." Golinkin was the most critical of the film.[9][12][13] According to Golinkin, "The colorful array of activists, artists, scarf-wrapped babushki, bearded priests and fresh-faced students makes it appear as if Ukraine’s people from all walks of life in participated in the Maidan uprising. But some are missing — neo-Nazis, who were edited out". Golinkin called the War in Donbass "a civil war".[13]
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Primetime Emmy Award in the Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking category.[14][15]
It was also one of the winners of the 2016 Television Academy Honors.[16]
Winter on Fire was widely shown around in Caracas in 2017 during the Venezuelan anti-government protests, in which protesters were rallying against President Nicolás Maduro,[17][18] and the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.[19][20]
