The Ministry of Culture refused to issue a distribution certificate for the film “The Fairy Tale” by Alexander Sokurov. This was reported on the director’s telegram channel.
“This is the next stage of censorship after yesterday’s cancellation of the screening of the film at the international film festival, where the law allows the demonstration of films without “distribution”,” Sokurov commented on the decision of the ministry.
Document with refusal Ksenia Sobchak published the issue of the certificate on her Telegram channel. According to it, the decision to refuse was made on the basis of subparagraph “G” of paragraph 18 of the Rules for issuing a rental certificate, according to which refusal can be “in other cases specified by federal laws.”
Yesterday it became known that “Fairy Tale” is on demand The Ministry of Culture was removed from the program of the Karo.Art film festival, which runs from October 10 to 15 in Moscow. According to the program, Sokurov’s film was supposed to close the five-day festival.
The premiere of “Fairy Tale” took place in August 2022 at the film festival in Switzerland. The film was also shown at several other venues — in particular, at the June festival “Example of Intonation” in St. Petersburg and in early October in Moscow at a closed screening hosted byKsenia Sobchak. In August, the director, in a conversation with TASS, said that “I’m not sure that this film will have a simple fate.”
The Tale features images of Stalin, Churchill, Hitler and Mussolini constructed on the basis of newsreel footage. According to the plot, they find themselves together in a monochrome purgatory and begin to communicate with each other, express their views, argue and reflect on their path in life. Meduza called “The Tale” in its review the director’s “most experimental and radical film” about the destructive nature of power.