Film about Russian czar’s affair premieres despite public hostility
MOSCOW: A film about the last Russian czar’s affair with a ballerina had its Moscow premiere Tuesday despite sparking outrage among some Russians that has been expressed through pickets, arson, and Molotov cocktails hurled at a movie studio.
“Matilda” has drawn fierce criticism from hard-line nationalists and some Orthodox believers who consider it blasphemous. The Russian Orthodox Church glorifies Emperor Nicholas II, who was executed with his family by Bolsheviks in 1918, as a saint.
Although most Russians accept that the affair happened, they maintain the movie’s depiction is distorted and vulgar. The film loosely follows the story of the czar’s infatuation with prima ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya.
What started out nearly a year ago as a campaign to collect signatures to protest the film’s release took on violent forms in recent months. Two cars were set on fire outside the office of the director’s lawyer. Signs reading “Burn for Matilda” were reportedly found nearby. Unidentified assailants threw Molotov cocktails at director Alexei Uchitel’s studio.
Uchitel said a few hours before the premiere that just getting the movie in front of a theater audience was an achievement.
“It is not just a victory for the film, but it is a victory for all reasonable people.”
Russian lawmaker Natalya Poklonskaya, who served as the chief regional prosecutor in Crimea following its 2014 annexation by Moscow, spearheaded the campaign to ban “Matilda.”
Poklonskaya sent numerous complaints about Uchitel and his film company to various law enforcement bodies, urging them to audit his taxes, review his finances and investigate him for incitement of religious hatred.
The controversy around the film reflects the increasing assertiveness of radical religious activists in Russia and a growing conservative streak in Russian society that worries many members of the nation’s artistic community.
The czar and his family were executed by a Bolshevik firing squad in July 1918. The Russian Orthodox Church made them saints in 2000.
Uchitel recalled during an interview with The Associated Press his shock at seeing a note at a Moscow church seeking signatures for a petition against the movie. What upsets him most is that the protests started after the first trailer’s release, a month before the film itself would be seen.