14:25, 26 May 2014

Officials ban screening film about Chechens' deportation referring to absence of reliable data about events in Khaibakh

A scene from the film "Ordered to Forget". Photo from Facebook page of producer Ruslan Kokanaev, http://ru-ru.facebook.com

The Russia's Ministry of Culture has initiated an additional examination of the film "Ordered to Forget", which tells about the deportation of Chechens and Ingushes in 1944. The outcomes of the examination will decide whether the film authors will be granted a screening certificate.

So far, officials believe that the release of the film, where the culmination is the alleged burning down of Khaibakh villagers will incite ethnic enmity.

The notification received by the author of the film from the Cinematography Department of the Russia's Ministry of Culture on the ban to screen the film "Ordered to Forget" reads that the story about burning down in February 1944 a few hundred residents of the Chechen village of Khaibakh by Soviet NKVD (the then name of the Interior Ministry) is unreliable.

In the opinion of the lawyer Zelimkhan Arapiev, the film cannot be banned without the appropriate examination; and even after it, the ban of the permitting authority can be appealed against in court.

Author: Magomed Tuayev

Source: CK correspondent