Films “threatening national unity” may face ban

Films which “threaten national unity” may be banned in Russia by the government under a new law, Russian news agency Interfax reported. According to an unidentified official from the Ministry of Culture, films that “undermine the foundations of constitutional order” may lose their license and thus be prevented from release in theatres across Russia.

The new law has sparked outrage from a number of Russian cultural figures. “What is this national unity? This is a completely new term which didn’t exist ... it is an unprecedented attack on good sense,” stated Daniil Dondurei, the Chief Editor of Iskusstvo Kino (Cinema Art) magazine, who expressed his worry about the legislation.

Talking about how filmmakers and artists “will not have any means of defending themselves”, Andrey Proshkin, the president of the Film Union, also stressed that the new proposal will enable officials to control what Russians see and do not see, and may lead to other bans within the arts.

However, reactions to the new law have not been exclusively negative. The Association of Orthodox Experts, who consider films like Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan as slanderous to the Russian people and the state, support the authorities to either put a ban on such films or forbid them from getting state financing in the future.

The controversy comes amid the limited release of Leviathan in Russia, which has been slammed by Russian officials as an “anti-Russian” film for its portrayal of corruption among Russia’s ruling elite.