The Ministry of Culture banned the distribution of the “inappropriate” film about the famine in the USSR in the 1920s

The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation has revoked the rental certificate from the documentary film “Hunger”, which tells about the events of the 20s of the last century in the USSR.

“The decision is connected with numerous complaints about this picture, – said the department, – received by the Ministry of Culture of Russia from citizens.”

The ministry added that the film “was described by them as inappropriate for screening.”

The authors of the film were writer Alexander Arkhangelsky, journalist Maxim Kournikov and director Tatyana Sorokina. The picture tells about the famine in Soviet Russia exactly a century ago, as well as how other countries, including Western ones, helped the USSR fight hunger. How notes RTVi, in the description of the film, the authors stated that they wanted to tell “about the tragedy, about the stupid, incompetent decisions that led to mass death”, as well as “about the heroes, about humanity, which erased the boundaries between states and peoples.”

Commenting on the decision of the Ministry of Culture, the writer Arkhangelsky said in a social network that the department, in its letter revoking the rental certificate, said that the film “found information, the dissemination of which is prohibited by the legislation of the Russian Federation.”

“What kind of legislation is it forbidden to talk about the fact that there was a famine in 1921-23?” writes Arkhangelsky. “This is a betrayal of one’s own history, a betrayal of family memory.” At the same time, the writer also stated that the revocation of the rental certificate does not mean a complete ban on showing, allowing the demonstration of the painting “exclusively for cultural and educational purposes <...> museums, exhibition halls or educational organizations”.