Culture Ministry reverses ban on films “threatening national unity”

Russia’s Ministry of Culture has reversed its plans to prevent films that “discredit national culture and threaten national unity” from obtaining distribution licences, a spokesperson from the ministry announced on Monday.

One of the proposed changes to distribution licence requirements would have allowed the government to deny the licences to films containing “materials, information discrediting national culture, creating a threat to national unity and national security, as well as undermining the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation”. The bill was withdrawn on the grounds that “experts considered the proposal unnecessary”.

The ministry’s u-turn comes at a time when public debate over the future of Russian film has taken centre stage. Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Golden Globe-winning Leviathan, a film about small-town corruption, has provoked outcry from Russian officials who have attempted to prevent it from being screened in Russia due to its “anti-Russianness”.