Russian culture committee to review anti-profanity law

The State Duma’s culture committee has promised to review the ban on profanity in the arts in what appears to be a response to a public backlash. Much of the dissent has focused on films screened at festivals and cinema clubs. For now, all films require distribution certificates before they can be publicly screened with those that contain swearwords at risk of being refused permission.

The law, which came into effect on 1 July, bans the use of expletives in books, film, music, theatre and popular blogs with transgressors facing fines of between $70 and $1,400 depending on whether they are an individual or an organisation.

Speaking to The Calvert Journal, Naiyla Golman, curator of the short films category at Moscow International Film Festival, warned of the troubled future for festivals if the law remains unchanged. “It’ll be very hard for film festivals and movie clubs to digest if the Duma really intends to continue with both of the deadly parts of the anti-profanity law,” she said. “On the one hand, films featuring swearing are banned from being publicly screened; on the other, all films now need a distribution certificate, which is expensive to get, and requires you to also provide a copy of the film to the State Film Fund, which is very pricey.”

Yelena Drapeko, first deputy chairman of the State Duma’s cultural committee, told Izvestia: “In September, when the deputies return from their holidays, we will definitely raise this question at a culture committee meeting. I am sure that we will be able to come to an acceptable decision.” She added: “Cinematographers hope that festivals, films clubs and different forms of non-commercial screenings will make it to the list of those exempt from this part of the law.”

Those in favour of relaxing the law include Vladimir Bortko, film director and deputy chairman of the State Duma’s culture committee; Kirill Razlogov, programme director of Moscow’s film festival; and Nikita Mikhalkov, noted director and head of the Union of Cinematographers.

Razlogov said: “If a director shoots an independent film, designed for small auditoriums, it would stupid to deprive him and viewers of the film. Festivals were created so that films could be shown true to the way that the artist conceived them.” He added: “It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the new law simply destroys the festival movement.”

One of the first film festivals to be affected by the new law was Voices, held in Vologda, which last week saw a film by the winner of this year’s Moscow Film Festival Valeria Gai Germanika, Yes & Yes, dropped from the line-up due to its use of expletives. There were also concerns that Andrey Zvyagintsev’s film Leviathan, which won a prize for best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, would be denied distribution because it contains profanities.

To protest the new law, film students and graduates from Marina Razbezhkina and Mikhail Ugarov’s School of Documentary Film and Theatre released a statement announcing a boycott against Russian film festivals, just days after the law was implemented.

Writing on her Facebook page, Razbezhkina, a respected film director and producer, said: “The work of students and graduates of our school will not participate in Russian festivals which demand films to hold a distribution certificate.”

Naiyla Golman of the Moscow film festival is cautiously optimistic: “Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan has received a distribution certificate, which many consider to be a good sign, leaving hope that the law will be reconsidered or in any case not used strictly. We can only hope.”