Leonid Kanter, a noted Ukrainian filmmaker, committed suicide on June 4, the Kyiv Post has confirmed.
Kanter shot himself in the village of Obyrok, Chernihiv Oblast. Chernihiv police published a report about the suicide of a man without naming him. Police spokesperson Yaroslav Trakalo later confirmed to the Kyiv Post that the man was indeed Kanter.
Police found a weapon next to the body: Kanter shot himself in the head, and left a suicide note, police said.
Kanter, a father of three, was one of the founders of the Obyrok art-village, having moved there from Kyiv in 2007. He was an organizer of art and culture festivals, including Mother Africa and Bread — a festival in which participants gathered to make homemade bread.
After Russia launched its war on Ukraine in the Donbas in 2014, Kanter directed two documentaries about Ukrainian soldiers serving in the east. One documentary, “The Ukrainians,” tells the story of the volunteer soldiers who defended Donetsk Airport from in 2014 and 2015. The airport was captured by Russian-led forces in early 2015.
His last documentary, co-directed with Ivan Yasniy and entitled “Myth,” was about the Ukrainian soldier Vasyl Slipak, who gave up his career as an opera singer with the Paris Opera to serve in the Ukrainian army.
Kanter collected archive videos of Slipak, visited his home town and his relatives, and traced his steps in the Donbas. Kanter later went on tour with the movie, presenting it in a dozen cities in Europe and North America.
