Press Release, 17.10.2023

Photo: A still from Alexander Sokurov’s film “The Fairy Tale”

Alexander Shishlov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, sent an appeal to the Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova with a request to reconsider the Ministry of Culture’s decision refusing to issue a distribution certificate for Alexander Sokurov’s new film “The Fairy Tale.” The new film by the outstanding Russian director Alexander Sokurov, “The Fairy Tale,” tells how Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and Churchill meet in the afterlife. When creating the film, Alexander Sokurov used footage from documentary chronicles and texts from real speeches of the historical characters. The film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in August 2022.

The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation refused to issue a distribution certificate for the film. This was reported on 13 October. The officials referred to subparagraph “g” of paragraph 18 of the rules on issuing distribution certificates approved by the Government (“others determined by federal laws”).

“The refusal to issue a distribution certificate for the film “The Fairy Tale” is not based on the provisions of federal legislation. Essentially, this is an act of censorship that opposes freedom of creativity,” Alexander Shishlov said.

Earlier, Alexander Shishlov proposed sending a corresponding appeal to the Ministry of Culture on behalf of the Commission on Education, Culture and Science of the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, of which he is a member. However, the Commission refused to even discuss Yabloko’s initiative. Deputies from the pro-government United Russia faction Anastasia Melnikova and Anton Rudakov voted against including the issue on the agenda of the meeting; another United Russia member, Anton Solovyov, did not participate in the vote. Only Alexander Shishlov voted for including of the issue in the agenda. Other members of the Commission did not participate in the meeting.