Russia censors the film Hunter Killer
The ministry of culture in Moscow has banned the US action film Hunter Killer from Russian cinemas. In the film an American submarine saves the Russian president from a military coup and a conspiracy threatening world order. Russia's regime-critical press acknowledges the censorship with an amused shaking of its head.
Censorship is the best advertising
Once again the authorities are creating an audience for a film that would otherwise go largely unnoticed, remarks columnist Anton Orech in Echo Moskwy:
“Nothing is better advertising for a film in this country than censorship. Matilda, The Death of Stalin - there are plenty of names on this peculiar list. The ministry of culture is circulating the official line that certain copies were not submitted at the right time or at the right place. ... Let them keep the CD of Hunter Killer in the state film archive. The rest of us will download and watch it and laugh our heads off because it's so obvious that if it weren't for censorship, no one would have watched the film in the first place.”
Don't put stupid ideas into people's heads
Snob suspects censors acted out of a fear of anything suggesting that the Russian regime might be shaky:
“They were clearly scared that the thriller might put dangerous ideas into people's heads. That a president could be toppled without it meaning the end of the world. That there might not be an iron consensus among the leadership. It's the same as in late Soviet times when the censors looked for insinuations in harmless novels, films and even music. Somehow they thought that such insinuations had to be there and that the population would read them correctly and start thinking - and then it would only be a matter of time before the regime was toppled. It's exactly the same with the film Hunter Killer. ... Incidentally, another East European country has banned it - Ukraine. On the grounds that it demonstrates 'the power of the Russian army.'”