Russia’s Ministry of Culture and a distributor have agreed not to release a new Hollywood movie, just a day before it was to open.
Child 44, directed by Daniel Espinosa, is a mystery thriller featuring a Soviet policeman investigating a series of grisly child murders in 1953. Its stars include Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman and is out now in the UAE.
The ministry said on Wednesday that it had received complaints concerning “distortion of historic facts and wilful interpretation of events... as well as images and characters of Soviet citizens of the period.”
The ministry’s statement said the ministry and the Russian distributor of the film, Central Partnership, jointly decided that the release of the movie in Russia in the run-up to celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany was “inadmissible”.
