12:02, 31 May 2017

Laureate of Cannes Film Festival bans screening his film in Kabardino-Balkaria

Kantemir Balagov. Photo from his personal page on "VKontakte", vk.com/kant_balag

Kantemir Balagov has forbidden showing in Nalchik his film "Tesnota" (Squeeze), which won the FIPRESCI prize of the International Federation of Cinematographers. He has motivated his decision by the reaction of the city authorities. Kantemir Balagov has reported his decision on his page in Facebook.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the film "Tesnota" won the main prize in the second most important contest programme of the Cannes Film Festival "The Special View".

In the film, the action takes place in Nalchik in the late 1990s. The film is focused on a story of a local Jewish family, from which a young man and his bride were kidnapped. To pay ransom, the family members have to sell the business and seek help from the Jewish community.

"The film 'Tesnota' will not be shown in Nalchik! It is my decision, and it is final. I am sorry, but it is impossible to break through the deafness of officials of the Kabardino-Balkaria. I do not want to hear from them: 'Our city is the best and brightest city in Russia' and 'We have never had interethnic conflicts.' It looks like I lived in another Nalchik," Kantemir Balagov wrote on his Facebook page.

According to film critics, in the film, Kantemir Balagov reveals the acute topic of national contradictions in the Caucasus.

"The contradictions between Jews and Kabardians, Russians and Chechens, Kabardians and Russians... are literally poured in the air," believes Konstantin Shavlovsky as quoted by the "Kommersant".

In her interview to the Radio Station "Govorit Moskva", Madina Tovkueva, the chief of the Culture Department of the Nalchik administration, has stated that she does not see a threat to the image of the city from the Kantemir Balagov's film.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.