If Anastasia Trofimova’s film Russians at War is a piece of Kremlin-approved propaganda, as its legions of detractors allege, then whoever approved it should stay well clear of any high windows.

The Russian-Canadian’s documentary was recently disowned under pressure from Ukrainian groups  by co-funder TV Ontario (after it initially defended it) and then cancelled over security concerns Thursday by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), also after initially defending it. I have watched it. It’s a portrait of sad, drunk, chain-smoking, confused, ill-equipped conscripts and volunteers surviving on a mixture of adrenaline, boredom, fear, vodka and misinformation about Ukraine — notably, in at least one case, that they are essentially fighting the second coming of the Third Reich.