Child 44 film banned from Russia for “distorting history”

Child 44, a film adaptation of a Tom Rob Smith novel about the search for a Soviet-era serial child killer, has been banned from screening in Russia after the Ministry of Culture accused the film of “distorting historical facts”. The film, which was due for release in Russia on 17 April, was pulled after the film’s Russian distribution company Central Partnership and the culture ministry jointly agreed that screening the film ahead of the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War (Second World War) would be “impermissible”.

“At the end of the press viewing the Ministry of Culture received questions regarding the very content of the film — the distortion of historical facts and original interpretations of events before, during and after the Great Patriotic War, as well as images and characters of Soviet citizens of the historical era,” a statement published today on the Minister of Culture’s website reads.

The thriller stars British actor Tom Hardy, who plays a disgraced Soviet intelligence agent investigating a series of brutal child murders. While the film is set during the Stalin era, the plot is based on the true story of Andrei Chikatilo, known as the Rostov Ripper, who was convicted of 52 murders in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.

“After a viewing of the film’s final version on 14 April with the participation of experts, representatives from the Ministry of Culture, Russian distributing company Central Partnership and the media, the opinions of the distributors and the ministry coincided: the distribution of such films on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Victory is impermissible,” the statement ends.

Last May, Russia’s Ministry of Culture banned screening of the film Ordered to Forget (2014) which depicted the 1944 mass deportation of the Chechen and Ingush inhabitants of the North Caucasus, accusing the film of “inciting ethnic hatred”. A month before, a member of the ruling United Russia party drafted a bill criminalising the distortion of Russian history in books, films and video games.