MOSCOW: A Moscow cinema, which screened British comedy “The Death of Stalin” in defiance of an official ban, has announced that it will stop showing the film after a raid by Russian police on Friday.
The Culture Ministry on Tuesday withdrew permission to screen British director Armando Iannucci’s film, which satirizes the death of the dictator, after Russian officials labeled it offensive and “extremist.”
But Moscow’s Pioneer Cinema, named after the Soviet youth organization, had decided to go ahead with its screenings of the film.
Reports of the cinema’s planned defiance led the Culture Ministry on Thursday to warn movie houses they would bear “legal responsibility” for showing the film.
On Friday, six policemen accompanied by a group of men in civilian clothing went to the cinema following a matinee screening of the film, and at one point held an administrator and other cinema employees behind closed doors.
Asked by AFP why they were there, the policemen repeatedly refused to give an answer. “We just wanted to go to the cinema at lunch,” one said.
The cinema’s employees did not comment on the decision to screen the film despite the ban and said they were not warned prior to the visit from law enforcement officers.
Later on Friday, Pioneer Cinema, which is owned by oligarch Alexander Mamut and is popular among the Russian liberal elite, said it would cease showing the film.
“Dear friends, for reasons not up to us, the Pioneer Cinema is obliged to cancel screenings of the film ‘The Death of Stalin’ from Jan. 27,” the cinema said on its website.
Anyone who has bought a ticket to a future screening will be reimbursed, it added.
Following the screening, but before the arrival of police, AFP spoke to Russians who watched the film that takes a sardonic look at the power scramble after Stalin’s 1953 death.
“Now I feel like doing something else that’s forbidden, like going to eat some Parmesan,” said Leonid Parfyonov, a liberal journalist and filmmaker, as he came out of the screening — a reference to the ban on Western food products in Russia.
Olga Gannushkina, 64, said she was grateful to the cinema for not canceling the screening and welcomed that a foreign director had made a film about the late Soviet dictator. “I think Russians are still scared to laugh about this,” she said.
Other viewers said the film was more of a tragedy than a comedy. Roman Laing, 25, said he came to the cinema after seeing on social media that it was still showing the film.
“It’s not actually a comedy, it’s a sad film. But as the fate of our country has often been so sad, we are used to laughing through tears,” he said.
Writing on Twitter, The Death of Stalin’s Scottish director Armando Iannucci thanked Russians for “all the messages of support” this week.
“It means a lot. I’m still hoping you get to see the film soon,” he wrote.
Moscow theater cancels screenings of Stalin film
Moscow theater cancels screenings of Stalin film
Turkish-language drama ‘Yellow Letters’ wins Berlin Film Festival’s top prize
- The report did not say who was to blame for the attacks
BERLIN: “Yellow Letters,” a Turkish-language drama about what happens to a marriage put under extraordinary political pressure, won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear top prize on Saturday night.
The drama filmed in Germany but set in Turkiye follows a married actor and playwright who have to leave behind their comfortable lives after the husband is targeted by the state for posting critical content online.
“I know what (this win) means to my cast and crew who came from Turkiye, who now are getting a visibility that is on an international scale,” Turkish-German director Ilker Catak told Reuters after the award ceremony.
The director, whose previous Berlin entry “The Teachers’ Lounge” was nominated for an Oscar, said it was important that the film was not just about Turkiye, but Germany as well.
“There is a sign that says 1933 and what we’ve seen in this country before, we must never forget,” he said, referring to the year that Adolf Hitler came to power.
This year’s jury president, legendary German director Wim Wenders, praised the winner as “a movie that speaks up very clearly about the political language of totalitarianism.”
In total, 22 films had been in the running.
POLITICAL FESTIVAL
The festival maintained its reputation as the most overtly political of its peers, Venice and Cannes, with the war in Gaza in particular dominating public discussions about the films.
“If this Berlinale has been emotionally charged, that’s not a failure of the Berlinale, and it’s not a failure of cinema,” said festival director Tricia Tuttle at the opening ceremony, using the festival’s nickname.
Wenders used his final appearance as jury president to urge filmmakers and activists to act as allies, not rivals, after his comment that filmmakers should not be political caused Indian novelist Arundhati Roy to pull out.
Several award winners used their speech to express solidarity with the Palestinians and other oppressed peoples.
“The least we can do here is to break the silence and remind them that they are not really alone,” said Turkish filmmaker Emin Alper, whose film “Salvation” took the second-place Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize.
Palestinian-Syrian director Abdallah Al-Khatib, whose “Chronicles From the Siege” won the Perspectives section for emerging filmmakers, criticized the German government for its stance on Gaza despite concerns about crossing a red line.
“I was under a lot of pressure to participate in Berlinale for one reason only, to stand here and say: ‘The Palestinians will be free,’” he said.
SANDRA HUELLER WINS AGAIN
German actor Sandra Hueller, who starred in 2024 Oscar-winning films “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Zone of Interest,” continued her winning streak by taking home best actor for the period piece “Rose,” in which she dresses as a man.
“To me, it’s special because I won my first-ever recognition as an actor in a film at this festival 20 years ago,” Hueller told Reuters, who won best actress in 2006 for “Requiem.”
“Queen at Sea,” a drama that follows French star Juliette Binoche as she deals with her mother’s advanced dementia and its effects on her marriage, won two prizes: the third-place jury prize and best supporting actor, shared by its two elderly performers, Anna Calder-Marshall and Tom Courtenay.
Director Lance Hammer, who last competed at the festival in 2008, said he hoped that maybe “people will see this and feel some comfort or relief that they’re not alone.”
Director Grant Gee won best director for “Everybody Digs Bill Evans,” a black-and-white biographical drama starring Norwegian actor Anders Danielsen Lie as the US jazz pianist.
“Nina Roza,” about an art curator who returns to Bulgaria to verify whether a child painting prodigy is genuine, won best screenplay while “Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird)” took the prize for outstanding artistic contribution.
