The film "№44" was not allowed to hire in Russia because of censorship

A major Russian film distributor, the Central Partnership company, withdrew its application from the Russian Ministry of Culture for a distribution certificate for the Hollywood film “No. 44” (“Number 44”). The film, as the Ministry of Culture considered, distorts historical facts and images of Soviet citizens and cannot be shown on the eve of the May 9 celebration.

"Such films should not be released in our country to mass film distribution, earning on our movie-goer, not in the year of the 70 anniversary of the Victory, nor ever else," Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Medinsky said sharply about the film.

An ordinary film is being turned into a “banned film,” and because of this, “interest in it will increase significantly,” this is how many social network users reacted to the ban.

The world premiere of the film is scheduled for April 17. Exit to the Russian rental was planned on the same day.

In the original, the film “No. 44” is called Child 44 - “Child 44”. It tells the story of a Soviet investigator from the fictitious organization NGB, who is looking for a maniac who kills children.

The film is based on a detective novel by Tom Rob Smith, who in turn took as a basis the story of one of the real maniacal murderers of the Soviet era, possibly the “Rostov Ripper” Andrei Chikatilo.

The case of numerous murders of children, which is investigated in the film by the hero Tom Hardy security officer Lev Demidov, is complicated by the fact that the authorities refuse to admit that this kind of murder can be committed in the Soviet state.

Hardy's partners in the picture are Gary Oldman, Numi Rapace, Vincent Cassel and Paddy Considine, and world critics believe that this will be a really strong thriller.

"Distortion of historical facts"

The plot of the film caused a sharp reaction in the Ministry of Culture.

“Not a country, but Mordor, with physically and morally inferior subhumans, a bloody mess in the frame of some orcs and ghouls - this is the country in which the film takes place from the 30s to the 50s of the twentieth century. This is how our country is shown - the same one that just won the Great War, became one of the world leaders and is about to launch the first man into space,” commented Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky.

A statement from the Ministry of Culture says that following a press screening of the film, the department received “questions regarding the content of the film, primarily distortions of historical facts and peculiar interpretations of events before, during and after the Great Patriotic War, as well as the images and characters of Soviet citizens of that historical era."

After that, the Ministry of Culture made another viewing with the participation of media representatives, a distributor, as well as some experts whose names were not given.

During the next screening, representatives of the ministry and the distributor, Central Partnership, formed the opinion that “distribution of this kind of film on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Victory is unacceptable.”

As Central Partnership clarified, the rights to the film “Number 44” were acquired back in 2011 as part of a package deal for the purchase of films from the Summit film company.

“We made a number of changes both at the script level and at the production and dubbing level. However, the result of this work did not satisfy us. In this situation, we decided to make the final decision on the release of the film in Russian distribution after a public discussion of the film. We are satisfied that our positions with the Ministry of Culture coincide. We consider it important in the future to strengthen state control over the distribution of films that have a socially significant context,” commented the head of Central Partnership, Pavel Stepanov.

Medinsky also called for thinking about the social and political context: “It’s time to finally formulate our own idea of ​​ourselves as the heirs of the great, unique Russian civilization. Clearly, canonically, without wantonly stumbling over “difficult questions of history” and meaningless reflections. Today, in the year of the 70th anniversary of the main event in the history of the XNUMXth century. Without this we will be crushed. Either we will have our own historical and, accordingly, future self-determination - or we will be “self-determined” without our participation.”

Central Partnership said it accepts all “the ensuing commercial consequences of this decision.”

“You and I are all unacceptable”

Users of social networks in the Russian segment of the Internet rather sharply reacted to the message about the revocation of the license, seeing censorship in such actions. Many blog authors did not like the reference of the Ministry of Culture to historical facts and how the department explains the ban on showing the film.

A number of users came to mind about the ban in the DPRK of the satirical film “The Interview” about a fictional plot to assassinate the DPRK leader Kim Jong-un.

“Putin has his own “Interview”,” пишет user Vladimir Starkov. Others predict the film to be an absentee success with a forbidden flavor: “That’s how many people didn’t even know about the film. And now an ordinary film has turned into a treasured “banned film” and interest in it will grow exponentially,”пишет user @TramEkb.

Same user conducts a parallel with “Leviathan” by Andrei Zvyagintsev, the viewing of which some activists tried to block, but were unsuccessful.

“We need to deal with Number 44 as we did with Leviathan: merge it into RuNet and launch a site for transferring money. That's all. The Ministry of Culture is in flight. I would do that,” writes Tram Ekb.

“Falsifying history is celebrating Victory Day in the company of the presidents of Honduras and Vanuatu,” did not like the explanation of the Ministry of Culture to the author of the blog on Twitter @antonsemakin.

The next, 70-year anniversary of the end of World War II, which in Russia is traditionally celebrated with special pomp, will be met by the Russian authorities in a much more modest company than ten years ago.

An impressive majority of world leaders refused to come to the Russian capital on 9 in May as a sign of Russia's condemnation of the annexation of the Crimea and its support for the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine.

“The film “No. 44” was banned for distribution in Russia because of... Victory Day. Why not because of Gagarin's flight? - asks the blogger Oleg Kozyrev.

“Is there an approved standard for the image of a Soviet person? What should we check with so as not to distort it?” - Twitter of the Grani.Ru website clarifies for the future.

“The Ministry of Culture called the distribution of the cartoon “Ilya Muromets” “unacceptable” due to the distortion of history and the image of the country’s leader,” the parody Twitter account RIP News ponders who could become the new victim of the Ministry of Culture.

“They say the Ministry of Culture plans to ban mirrors for distorting the images of Russian citizens,” went further user @ivan_f_davydov.

“We are all unacceptable here on the eve of the 70th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War,” sums up disappointing outcome user @traktor_bang.