Rust director Joel Souza is reflecting on the movie’s world premiere in Poland three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot dead on set.
On Wednesday, Nov. 20, the Western film premiered at the Camerimage Festival, and Souza, 51 — who was hit in the shoulder by a bullet during the Oct. 21, 2021 incident that killed Hutchins, 42 — described the event as “bittersweet,” per NBC News.
“I think we would all have preferred that the movie was finished a long time ago, that Halyna was there standing proudly talking about it,” Souza told the outlet after the premiere at the festival, which honors the work of cinematographers and directors of photography.
Hutchins died after the prop gun that Rust cast member Alec Baldwin was holding discharged while he was rehearsing a scene. The actor has said he did not pull the trigger of the gun or know why it contained live ammunition.
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After Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury in January, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ended up dropping the involuntary manslaughter case against the actor on July 12 after Baldwin’s defense team argued that prosecutors buried relevant evidence that came to light mid-trial.
Souza told NBC News of the premiere on Wednesday, “It’s been so long living with the movie and everything that happened and just all the sort of … insanity that kind of engulfed everything. There is a sense of relief, I think, in this moment finally having happened.”
“I doubt that [his attending] was ever even discussed. I mean, this is a cinematographers’ film festival,” the movie-maker added to the outlet of Baldwin not being in attendance.
Courtesy of Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office
The premiere came after PEOPLE reported that Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey, would not be attending Wednesday’s event.
In a statement shared through her attorney Gloria Allred, Solovey said, “It was always my hope to meet my daughter in Poland to watch her work come alive on screen.”
“Unfortunately, that was ripped away from me when Alec Baldwin discharged his gun and killed my daughter. Alec Baldwin continues to increase my pain with his refusal to apologize to me and his refusal to take responsibility for her death,” she added, per the statement.
“Instead, he seeks to unjustly profit from his killing of my daughter. That is the reason why I refuse to attend the festival for the promotion of Rust, especially now when there is still no justice for my daughter,” Solovey’s message included.
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Rust completed filming in May 2023.
It was announced in October that the film would have its world premiere at the Polish festival on Wednesday. At that time, cinematographer Bianca Cline, who finished shooting the movie in Hutchins’ place, told PEOPLE in a statement that Hutchins’ mother and sister were “very excited” for the movie to release.
“Halyna’s mother was probably the biggest champion of the film,” Cline previously said. “She wanted it to be done because she knew how much it meant to Halyna. She told me how excited Halyna was to see the film.”
Rust does not yet have a U.S. release date.
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