ARMED Russian police have raided a Moscow arthouse cinema that defied a government ban on the screening of Scots director Armando Iannucci’s comedy The Death of Stalin.
The film's distribution certificate had been withdrawn, effectively cancelling its planned Thursday release after a private screening for members of parliament and representatives from Russian cinema in Moscow.
Russian attendees had complained that the satire contained "ideological warfare" and "extremism".
The ban – the first ever of its kind in post-Soviet Russia – had raised fears about the return of censorship and the further rehabilitation of one of history’s tyrants.
On Friday, six police officers and a number of plainclothes officials arrived at the Pioneer cinema in central Moscow which was showing the movie to question staff and collect evidence.
Officers would only confirm that they were carrying out an investigation.
Later the cinema said it had decided to stop screening the movie. It said it had been forced to act for "reasons beyond our control" and promised to refund customers who had bought tickets.
The culture ministry says cinemas that showed it will face fines and possible temporary closure.
Police and other unknown group of people in civilian clothes have showed up at Moscow's Pioner cinema after a screening of Death of Stalin and refusing to say what's going on pic.twitter.com/TwiH6xNJLw
— Ola Cichowlas (@olacicho) January 26, 2018
The film portrays back-stabbing and infighting among the dictator’s closest allies, as they fight for power immediately after the death of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1953.
Pioneer staff had originally insisted that further schedule screenings of the film would go ahead.
It was the only Russian cinema to go ahead with screening the film, which depicts a power struggle after the Soviet leader's death.
The packed audience reportedly included at least two people who said they witnessed the Soviet dictator’s funeral six decades ago.
The Russian government said the movie mocks the country’s past, but Dina Voronova and Ella Katz — schoolgirls when Josef Stalin died in 1953 — said they applauded when the credits rolled at the end of the screening in Moscow.
“I liked the film. I never expected to see our former government leaders depicted like that,” said Ms Voronova, 80, a former pre-school head teacher who remembers seeing Stalin’s body in an open casket at the funeral.
Everyone, cops included, just sort of hanging out now here at Moscow’s Pioner theater. They just showed the banned film @Death_of_Stalin. More than an hour after film ended, we await the conclusion. pic.twitter.com/Bp7mlfw3R7
— Matthew Bodner (@mattb0401) January 26, 2018
“I didn’t laugh. There were some funny moments in the film, but I couldn’t laugh, because that was my life,” she said, adding that she was not offended by the film.
An advisory committee to the culture ministry recommended that the film be postponed to avoid clashing with the 75th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad - one of the largest battles in military history and a decisive victory against Nazi Germany.
Yelena Drapeko, deputy head of the lower house of parliament's culture committee she had "never seen anything so disgusting in my life".
Yury Polyakov, a member of the culture ministry's advisory council, said it contained aspects of "ideological warfare".
Pavel Pozhigailo, a member of the advisory committee, said the film “insults our historic symbols – the Soviet anthem, orders and medals” and called it “blasphemous”.
Committee officials say the film will be examined for “extremism” in comings weeks.
Oleg Berezin, head of the Association of Cinema Owners, which represents independent cinemas in Russia, said the culture ministry’s decision to withdraw the film’s distribution licence was illegal. “There has not been any court decision about this,” he said.
Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky denied that the film ban was an act of censorship. He said it was a question of morality.
More police arriving at Moscow's Pioner cinema after Death of Stalin screening pic.twitter.com/81NgJGBcw2
— Ola Cichowlas (@olacicho) January 26, 2018
"Many people of the older generation will regard the film as an insulting mockery of the Soviet past," he said.
Death of Stalin is Mr Iannucci's first film since 2009, when he directed the Oscar-nominated In The Loop – a movie spin-off of The Thick Of It.
The 54-year-old Glasgow-born writer, television director, and radio producer is no stranger to lampooning politics, having created the sitcom The Thick Of It, had a major hand in The Day Today and The Saturday Night Armistice and co-created the spoof documentary series Time Trumpet.
The culture ministry ban comes amid Stalin’s renewed popularity in Russia under president, Vladimir Putin, despite the 1930s Communist Party purges and mass terror that killed or incarcerated millions of people.
Putin said last year that western countries were using the “excessive demonisation” of Stalin to attack Russia.
In an opinion poll published in June by the independent, Moscow-based Levada Centre, Russians named Stalin the “most outstanding person” in world history.
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