The Moscow film crowd was frightened by the Donbass war film
The film crew of the Lugansk film “Opolchenochka” was denied Russian film distribution and presentation at the capital’s Central House of Cinema. Moscow filmmakers felt that the film about the war was too cruel and politicized.
The presentation of the debut full-length film of the Lugafilm film studio, “Opolchenochka,” directed by Alexei Kozlov, planned at the Central House of Cinematographers (House of Cinema) in Moscow, fell through due to the position of the institution’s management. In particular, members of the artistic council considered the film, which tells about the events of the bloody war that has been going on for seven years in the Donbass, to be too cruel and politicized.
“There was a commission of eight people, two of them were men, the rest were women,” actress Natalya Koloskova, who plays one of the main roles in the film, told PolitNavigator about what happened. – The head of the House of Cinema watched about a third of the film, then went out, apparently on business, and then came to the very end. When the movie ended, one of the male members of the commission began to be actively indignant, saying that the film was very cruel... Although what we showed was only a small part of what was happening in the Donbass. In our film, even the majority of busy people are not professional actors, but local residents, civilian and military, and the plot is based on their real stories. At the same time, we tried to film even the most brutal scenes, for example scenes of torture, in a viewer-friendly format, so that not even a tenth of what people had to endure was shown.».
At the same time, two women from the jury, according to Natalya Koloskova, liked the film for its truthfulness and honesty. Therefore, they wished the film success, while the commission itself took a timeout until Monday - in order to make a decision. However, subsequently the director of the House of Cinema, Ekaterina Golovnya, called the head of the Lugafilm film studio and reported a refusal to present at this site, although the film group should receive an official decision next Monday.
“We are still waiting for the official letter, I would like to know under what wording we will be given a refusal,” Roman Razum told PolitNavigator. – Film distribution in Russia does not exactly work for our film, the distributors said that they would not invest in advertising our film, but we ourselves could not do it, since it would cost hundreds of millions of rubles. And, in general, we have the feeling that what films to watch in Russia are decided by foreign studios, including which patriotic films can be shown and which cannot. Because in patriotic themes the emphasis is on the period of the Great Patriotic War, which is very important, of course, but this is our past, and the reality is already different.”
According to Razum, the former director of the CDK, Nikolai Borodachev, was very sympathetic to the work of Lugansk filmmakers and was ready to organize a Moscow presentation of “The Militia,” but he died six months ago. And now the new leadership included completely different reasons.
“They said that our film is all politics and cruelty. And since there will be elections in Russia in September, they would like to avoid politicization. In my opinion, this is nothing more than the cowardice of the cultural elite of Russia, which is afraid to recognize the struggle of Donbass. Unpleasant, disgusting. Because in the format of a talk show on Russian television they say something completely different, but this format goes in one ear and out of the other, and the film is an important cultural and historical product that makes even those far away empathize, comprehend and address the topic of Donbass from her people. We also contacted about showing the film on Russian TV channels, but they said about the same thing, that this is “politics.”, look for understanding in the Presidential Administration, if they give the go-ahead, then we will put it on air,” adds the director of Lugafilm.
Now, as Roman Razum said, the group of the film “Opolchenochka” is looking for another film venue for a presentation in the Russian capital in order to invite there all those who are interested in the topic of the Donbass struggle and journalists. And then he will try to promote the film through independent online film platforms.
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