A Russian movie got a “not recommended for showing” label in the American market.
A new movie by a Russian director Yuri Grymov, “Strangers,” will not be on the screens in the USA because of its “anti-American appeal,” online newspaper Dni.Ru reports. The movie’s Web site says Grymov wanted to shoot a movie about “the collision of cultures.”
Set in a Middle-Eastern internal conflict zone, “Strangers” is a story about a U.S. charity group of doctors who come to the area to vaccinate children. Dni.Ru reports, in the film, the doctors fail to establish a good relationship with the locals yet continue to believe they are “bringing a third-world country to their own, progressive, level.” In the end, they are revealed as testing new vaccines on the local population.
Quoting the official synopsis:
“Viewers will see how American nation tries to instill its morals in another world but at the same time it doesn’t understand one simple thing – there is no such thing as one’s “own” morals”
“Strangers” cast is a combination of Russian and American actors. The plot includes several Russian soldiers, working to neutralize mines in the surrounding territory. In one of the scenes, according to Dni.Ru, a POW Russian military doctor saves one of the Americans and ends up killed by the local rebels.
Responding to the ban in the U.S., Yuri Grymov told Dni.Ru:
“…the USA has recently been taking any form of criticism very painfully. And I have expressed my position about the U.S. politics of supremacy very clearly in the movie.”
The movie should be a limited release in the U.S. in the beginning of 2009.
I believe the whole story of the movie having been “banned” is a hoax. I coudln’t find any traces of this “ban” on the web, except the movie site and a couple of third-grade Russian news sites.
Comment by Jeremy — October 15, 2008 @ 11:02 am
I wouldn’t go as far as to say Dni.Ru is a third-grade Russian news site.
I was indeed very surprised at how hard it was to find anything about the movie on Google. (Also, it doesn’t help that the original “Strangers” is a much more grand-scale Hollywood production) Yet, it doesn’t surprise me too much that the U.S. media wouldn’t cover some small foreign film such as this.
But the question remains: Even if it is a hoax, as you say, how many such occurrences might be happening in the U.S.?
Comment by alinaselyukh — October 16, 2008 @ 12:01 am
The St. Petersburg Times has written about the hoax:
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=27406
Comment by information — November 15, 2008 @ 8:29 pm
Yeah, I’ve spoken to a few friends about this Yuri Grymov. He doesn’t have too good of a reputation. I am planning on posting a new blog about this. He also plagiarized the idea for his DVD cover.
Comment by alinaselyukh — November 16, 2008 @ 11:29 pm