Documentary Exposes The Male Mastermind Behind Ukraine's Topless Feminist Movement

"Our mission is protest, our weapons are bare breasts." -Femen's slogan

The creator the topless feminist protest movement Femen is a domineering man, according to a new documentary about the group and reported by Geoffrey MacNab of The Independent.

Australian filmmaker Kitty Green made the documentary, "Ukraine is not a Brothel," after filming protests of the Ukrainian group and interviewing Femen mastermind Victor Svyatski. "It's [Svyatski's] movement and he hand-picked the girls," Green told The Independent. "He hand-picked the prettiest girls because the prettiest girls sell more papers. The prettiest girls get on the front page ... that became their image, that became the way they sold the brand."

Green added that Svyatski is "fiercely intelligent" but "was quite horrible with the girls. He would scream at them and call them bitches."

Since 2010 the group has performed political protests in numerous countries including Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Tunisia, France, Brazil, Sweden, and even The Vatican. It was previously assumed that the founders were three women who fled Ukraine to avoid persecution.

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"These girls are weak," Svyatski reportedly says in the film. "They don't have the strength of character. … they show submissiveness, spinelessness, lack of punctuality, and many other factors which prevent them from becoming political activists. These are qualities which it was essential to teach them."

At one point Green asks him if whether he started Femen "to get girls," to which he replies: "Perhaps yes, somewhere in my deep subconscious." Checkout the trailer here >

Femen has had many female detractors. Here's the reaction to the news from writer and researcher Samia Errazzouki: