Just days after the documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin took the American Oscars by storm, state censorship struck in Russia.
The court in Chelyabinsk today approved the prosecutor's request and immediately banned the distribution of the film throughout the Russian Federation. The film, which explores the militarization of Russian education, was labeled as “extremism propaganda”, confirmed by the Russian state agency TASS.
What do the creators say?
Director Nikita Mikhalkov, a Russian filmmaker and actor, got involved in the controversy. He accused the documentary creators of following American sabotage manuals from 1944 while filming. However, according to producers Alžbeta Karásková and Radovan Síbrt, this claim is just “an absurd example of state propaganda”.
“The only guide director Pavel Talankin followed was his own conscience and the aim to document how the Russian education system exploits children for militaristic ideology,” the producers stated in an official statement.
A Paradoxical Award from the Censor
The creators see the Russian judiciary's move as confirmation of their work's truthfulness. If the regime labels authentic evidence of reality in Russian schools as dangerous, they believe it's proof of paranoia and fear of the truth.
While Russian authorities ban the film claiming it “illegally depicts children”, the creators call it pure hypocrisy. According to the producers, the real exploitation is how the state deliberately pushes propaganda into kids' minds, which the documentary accurately shows. The authors are convinced that the ban in Russia won't stop the rest of the world from learning about the fate of the children there. On the contrary, the Kremlin's effort to cover it up and punish only proves how important and urgent it is to talk about this topic.
