Rust premieres at low-key film festival three years after shooting

He said he changed his mind and decided to complete the film after speaking to Hutchins' husband, Matt.

But the announcement that Camerimage in the northern Polish city of Torun was going to give the movie its international debut has been criticised by some prominent cinematographers in Hollywood for being disrespectful to Hutchins' memory.

Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey, who is suing the production and Alec Baldwin in a civil action, didn’t attend either.

In a statement issued by her lawyer she said she regards the premiere as an attempt to profit from her daughter’s death.

“Alec Baldwin continues to increase my pain with his refusal to apologise to me and his refusal to take responsibility for her death,” she said.

In October 2021, Baldwin was rehearsing a scene on set with a gun, which was supposed to be loaded with dummy rounds, when the weapon fired a live round, killing Hutchins and wounding Souza.

How a live bullet got into the gun remains a mystery.

In July, a judge dismissed an involuntary manslaughter case against Baldwin after police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defence.

In March, the armourer on the film set, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and is serving an 18-month prison sentence. She has appealed against the verdict.

Set in 1882 in Wyoming, Rust tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who is sentenced to be hanged after he accidentally kills a rancher. He goes on the run with his grandfather, Baldwin’s Harlan Rust.

Before the screening, Rachel Mason, a close friend of Hutchins who filmed a documentary about the making of Rust, recalled how difficult it was to complete the movie with all the controversy surrounding it.

She said some crew members told her not to film them on the closed set, in case, she said, it was discovered they had worked on Rust "and I might never get a job again".

Crew came back to finish the filming after they realised it might help Hutchins' family.

"She had this amazing gift of becoming friends very, very fast with people. And they all fell in love with her," she said.

Ms Mason also recounted a conversation with Hutchins' mother 18 months ago during which she told her she wanted the film to be completed because it was her daughter’s "big work".

Rust depicts the manhunt for grandfather and grandson amidst a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and tumbleweed dirt towns.

It knowingly acknowledges classic westerns including John Ford’s ‘The Searchers’ and Sergio Leone’s ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’.

Souza was very close to his own grandfather, who, he said, loved westerns.

Several people I spoke to after the screening enjoyed the movie with Jan, a film colourist from Warsaw calling it "a classic western".

Leonora, a cinematographer from Belarus said it was brilliant and she had cried all the way through Ms Mason’s speech.

One viewer noted the many gunfight scenes involving Alec Baldwin could be distracting.

“All the time as I was thinking about it, especially during the gunfight scenes, it was hard not to get pulled back out of the movie, especially when Alec Baldwin’s holding a gun, but most of the time it was just a really, really enjoyable experience,” Maciej from Torun said.

In a statement, Melina Spadone, representative for Rust Movie Productions, defended the festival against some of the criticism.

"The Camerimage festival celebrates the artistry of cinematographers; it is not a festival for buyers.

"None of the producers of Rust stand to benefit financially from the film. The suggestion that those involved in completing Halyna Hutchins’ film were motivated by profit is disrespectful to those who worked tirelessly to honor her legacy.”