A Serbian arthouse movie that swept a prestigious European festival this year was banned from screening in Russia by the Culture Ministry, prompting allegations of censorship.
The film, Clip, was banned over indecent language and scenes of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as “pornographic” depictions of sex between minors, Sam Klebanov, the head of Kino Bez Granits, the film’s prospective distributor, said on Saturday.
The ban was signed by Deputy Culture Minister Ivan Demidov, known for his radical Orthodox Christian views, Klebanov said.
The decision spells a new era for the Culture Ministry, headed since May by Vladimir Medinsky, a conservative-minded PR specialist with a controversial reputation, Klebanov said.
“This is the first case of such censoring, and an attempt to introduce moral censorship in the country,” he said, adding that explicit arthouse fare never had any screening problems in Russia.
Neither Demidov nor Medinsky commented on the censorship allegations as of Saturday. A call to the Culture Ministry’s press service made after working hours went unanswered.
Clip, directed by Maja Milos, tells the story of a provincial teenager experimenting with drugs and sex in order to forget her near-dysfunctional family.
In January, the film split the main prize of the International Film Festival Rotterdam with two other movies. The jury touted it for an uncompromising and honest insight into the life of the “mobile generation”.
The film was set to premiere in Russia on August 30. Klebanov said the release is postponed, but not canceled because his company intends to sue.
The risk of not obtaining screening permits in Russia was previously limited almost exclusively to pornographic films with obscene titles. On important exception was Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat” (2006), a scathing satire of Kazakhstan and the United States, denied the screening permit in what critics said was Moscow’s gesture of solidarity with official Astana, which was outraged by the mockumentary.
