Moscow Film Festival Withstands Political Pressure

The Sri Lankan government had lodged an official complaint with the Russian Foreign Ministry about the inclusion of Beate Arnestad's documentary film My Daughter the Terrorist at the 2008 Moscow Film Festival.   In turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry wrote to the festival organisers to ask them to pull the film because it publicised terrorism.   Nikita Mikhalkov, the festival’s manager, and documentary film programmer Georgi Molotsov refused to pull the film, stating that the festival had the right to show the 60-minute film and that the key concept of the Free Thought documentary sidebar at the festival was that it was independent of politics.

An anonymous official of the Sri Lankan embassy criticised the film, telling Daily Variety, ‘The documentary is based on a group called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is a banned terrorist organization in America, Great Britain and other countries.   The documentary was made in Sri Lanka without the approval or consent of the government and glorifies suicide attacks.’   The official went on to say, ‘The film highlights suicide bombers at a time when the whole world is going the other way; it shows an attack on the president of Sri Lanka in which many innocent civilians died.’

The festival increased security at the film’s screening.    Director Arnestad spent 18 months negotiating with the Tamil Tigers to ensure she could film without interference and a further two years filming undercover in Sri Lanka.

The government had tried to pressurise the organisers of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in America in April 2008, but the screening went ahead, although Arnestad said she was heckled by Sri Lankans in the audience of the question-and-answer session following the screening.   ‘ I am amazed the Sri Lankans are putting so much energy into (attacking) a personal film that seeks to find out what motivates young women to become suicide bombers,’ Arnestad, who claimed the film’s producer, Morten Daae, had received death threats, said.   ‘I do feel intimidated; the Sri Lankans, who have labelled me as part of a terrorist network, do seem to be following me or paying attention to where the film is screening.’ [ADD]

2008

Russia: 2008