The program featured four films, scheduled for Sunday afternoons: The Return (2003), by Andrey Zvyagintsev; Russian Ark (2002), by Aleksandr Sokurov; Leviathan (2014), also by Zvyagintsev; and The Island (2006), by Pavel Lungin.

The final two screenings of a Russian film program were cancelled after the museum hosting the event received a formal letter from Ukraine's ambassador to Argentina. The decision has sparked a debate over cultural freedom, the role of public institutions and diplomatic pressure.

The Sarmiento Historical Museum, a public institution administered by Argentina's federal government and part of the country's national museum network, has become the center of a controversy after it abruptly cancelled the final two screenings of a Russian film program that had been scheduled for October.…