11:47, 2 October 2003

International Chechnya Film Festival was to be opened in Moscow yesterday, however action turned out to be under threat of failure

The Cinema Center on Krasnaya Presnya, where the festival program was to be demonstrated, pulled out.

The Cinema Center on Krasnaya Presnya, where the festival program was to be demonstrated, pulled out. Director of the Museum named after Sakharov Yuri Samodurov, who is a member of the festival organizational committed, reported it.
According to Samodurov's words, the activity of special services is touched among other things in all the pictures that entered the program. These pictures have already been demonstrated in Washington and London. In Moscow one is able to see them only at Sakharov's Museum now. The hall of the museum can seat only 90. Therefore not many people will see the program.

The scandal with the demonstration of documentaries about Chechnya in Moscow is bound to the forthcoming election.

The Cinema Center direction gave comments on the situation arisen. Director Vladimir Medvedev said the Cinema Center refused to demonstrate festival films since some of the foreign pictures were unacceptable for demonstration.

Source: Ekho Moskvy Radio