Aleksey Uchitel’s film “matilda” is rousing a lot of controversy in Russia. The yet to be released film has irked many people in the country as well as the Orthodox Church. To combat the film’s content and display their feelings, the Russian Orthodox Church has set up numerous billboards around Moscow. What is causing everybody to act so strongly about Uchitel’s film?
Nicholas II and the affair
Director Aleksey Uchitel’s latest film “Matilda” has been getting a lot of bad publicity in Russia. The film set to depict Tsar Nicholas II’s affair with ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya has caused the Russian Orthodox church to retaliate against the film.
To protest, the church has put up 300 billboards around Moscow to show the love between the Tsar and his wife Empress Alexandra. The billboards contain letters of love between the Tsar and the Empress to show the people that the Tsar truly loved his wife.
The billboards not only affirmed the Imperial couple’s love, but they also highlighted the values of love, mutual respect, and faith. All the words displayed in posters were taken from the Nicholas II’s and Alexandra’s diaries and letters.
“Matilda” sparked a lot controversy because of its subject. The affair between Matilda and Nicholas II was before his marriage to German Princess Alix and was a touchy subject for a lot of Russians and their church.
After all, Tsar Nicholas Ii’s is canonized the by the Orthodox Church. Russian conservatives think that the film’s depiction of the Tsar is very disrespectful.
Other than billboards targeting the film, “Matilda” has also received a lot of other criticism. Russian Politician Natalya Poklonskaya has said that the film can’t depict saints in such a way.
Showing a saint having an affair offends many people with strong beliefs.
To top it all off, the Russian film also attracted violent threats and actions. A man in Yekaterinburg crashed his car into a cinema and set it on fire. The man has confessed that he did it to protest against Uchitel’s film. Two Russian movie theatres have also refused to show “Matilda” on their screens.
Bad publicity is good publicity
Despite all of the protests, director Uchitel has remained unfazed. In fact, the “Matilda” director thinks that this is good publicity for his film. He even appreciated the billboards as they ares advertising his movie.
Uchitel also shared that not all of the film will depict the affair. The final scenes of the upcoming movie will show Nicholas II and Alexandra’s love for each other and even ends with the two together.
Nicholas II is Russia’s last Tsar. Together with Empress Alexandra, they ruled Imperial Russian until his abdication. They were imprisoned from July 16 to 17, 1918 and were later executed
