Walling Off Matilda

Russian authorities would like to mark the centennial year of the Russian revolutions by stressing the unity of the country, to show that past strife has long since been replaced by stability.

But, as Russia approaches the end of 2017, tempers are flaring around a biopic about Nicholas II’s love affair with the ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska.

Old debates die hard.

The movie, Matilda, by Alexei Uchitel, is making Orthodox conservatives seethe, and it has pushed some extremists to make bomb threats against movie theaters as a way to prevent screenings. How, opponents ask, dare Uchitel, whose film focuses on the documented love affair between Nicholas (prior to his marriage or ascent to the throne) and Mathilde, a dancer at the Mariinsky Theater, show a decidedly unregal side of the venerated martyr tsar?

The extent of the furor over the movie even led Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky to admit that his “patience had run out.” He is now urging law enforcement to bring the attackers to justice.

“The last Russian emperor and a ballerina who confirmed the greatness of Russian ballet. Passion that could have changed Russian history. Love that became legend.”

Excerpt from the synopsis of Matilda from the official webpage of Rock film studio

“Whether intentionally or not, Alexei Uchitel has touched on a taboo topic, and it’s bigger than the fate of the emperor. On the centennial of the 1917 revolution, our filmmakers are as mute as fishes. Everyone senses that it’s dangerous to touch the Reds and the Whites, Lenin and the Tsar – you will inevitably step on someone’s toes… The film is about the fact that if Nicholas hadn’t jilted his Malya (Matilda) out of a sense of duty, everything could have been different… No Khodynka, no abdication, no coup d’etat, nor two world wars.”

- Critic Anton Dolin’s review of Matilda

“The decision is exclusively due to our desire to protect moviegoers from risks brought on by public showings of the film”

- Statement by the Formula Kino movie-theater chain following bomb threats and an arson attack on filmmaker Uchitel’s studio

“The goal was to unify the Orthodox community in order to communicate and discuss spiritual issues. I was supported by monasteries and churches. I was able to bring together a considerable number of believers. We came together not to fight anyone, but to support one another in the regions… We created a brotherhood. Our objective wasn’t to get into fights with any “Matildas” or schizophrenics. When this little film came out, we had to unite our efforts to fight this evil.”

- Head of an organization calling itself “The Christian State,” Alexander Kalinin, who has been arrested and charged with attacks and threats over the film Matilda (Meduza)

“Movie theaters and TV channels that respect people’s feelings and don’t want to be exploited by the creators of this strange Matilda project, which have among them a man from western Ukraine, a place where Euromaidan happened, they are refusing to show this film, which they have every right to do.”

- Outspoken Nicholas II admirer lawmaker Natalia Poklonskaya, who has been accused of galvanizing the movement against the film. (from her Facebook page)