Posted on 02/08/2018 11:23:47 AM PST by GoldenState_Rose
On January 23, days before Armando Iannucci's new comedy “The Death of Stalin" was due to premiere in Russia, the Culture Ministry revoked the film’s distribution license. Hours before, the movie was screened for a group state officials who roundly criticized it as a mockery of Soviet history.
Human rights activists in Syktyvkar have filed a lawsuit challenging the Culture Ministry’s decision to revoke the distribution license...
Why sue in Syktyvkar? The region was tightly integrated with the Soviet Gulag, meaning that nearly every family with local roots dating back a few generations suffered directly because of Stalinism. The activists say they hope the court in Syktyvkar will be more inclined to consider their lawsuit objectively.
The activists argue that the government’s decision violates the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 44 of the Russian Constitution (which guarantees artistic freedom and participation in cultural life, and requires the preservation of historical heritage). Their lawsuit also states that Russia’s authorities illegally withdrew the film’s license, insofar as the ministry utilized its ability to ban distribution on the grounds that a public demonstration of the movie revealed that it contains “illegal information.” The activists point out that the film wasn’t screened publicly before the government’s ban, and officials never explained what is illegal about Iannucci's comedy.
(Excerpt) Read more at meduza.io ...
Putin has a new comedy coming....’The Death of Armando’.......I hear it a riot!............
I’m not sure how much associated with Stalin is comedy, but the state shouldn’t censor it.
Charlie Chaplin’s the Dictator was a comedy.
Hitler hadn’t started stuffing people in ovens yet. And the Great Dictator wasn’t funny; it was actually horribly put together because about the time they were wrapping up production, Stalin signed the Non-Aggression Pact with Hitler so Chaplin was ordered by Moscow to add the ending scene where he admonished the audience “this is not our fight.”
You are right and there was nothing comical about Stalin and his atricities. But the worst thing dictators hate is when people make fun of them. I hear, Hitler was very pissed at the Dictator, its pluses or minuses aside.
To my prevoious point, people in Russia were sent to Gulag for jokes or even typos associated with Stalin or his name (like Stalingad instead of Stalingrad). The editor-in-chief of that paper was arrested and sent to Gulag for that typo.
Atrocities
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