11:39, 9 January 2020

PO upholds "Matilda" movie, which caused Kadyrov's indignation

A still of the "Matilda" movie. Screenshot from the "Official Trailers" YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvYBquWXbvU

The Prosecutor's Office (PO) of Saint Petersburg has conducted a series of checks of the "Matilda" movie by the film director, Alexei Uchitel, which in 2017 was opposed by authorities of the republics of Northern Caucasus, and found no violations of the law.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in 2017, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, sharply opposed the movie and asked the Russian Minister of Culture to exclude Chechnya from the screening certificate of the movie. A similar request was made by the First Deputy Prime Minister of Dagestan. Also, the only Ingush film distributor refused to screen the movie, which "could offend believers' feelings."

The historical drama movie "Matilda" tells the fate of the ballerina, Matilda Kshesinskaya, who was loved by the would-be Russian Emperor Nicholas II. Natalia Poklonskaya, a State Duma MP, stated that the image of the Emperor created in the movie mismatched the one of Nicholas II, canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

After a series of checks, the above PO found no violations of the law in the movie, the TASS has reported.

Ms Poklonskaya found the screening of the movie unacceptable for moral and religious reasons. Her campaign against the "Matilda" found support in the regions of Northern Caucasus amid the regional growing trend for struggling for morality. Chechnya and Dagestan launched online communities of activists, the so-called "guardians of morality": they managed to cancel the anime festival, and to ban a number of concerts by musicians and screening of certain movies.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 9, 2020 at 01:21 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.