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League for Safe Internet asks ministry to revoke lending license of La Vie d'Adele

The organization believes the film must be banned from screening as it contains propaganda of pedophilia

French actress Lea Seydoux cries at a press conference for La Vie d'Adele (archive) EPA/SEBASTIEN NOGIER

French actress Lea Seydoux cries at a press conference for La Vie d'Adele (archive)

© EPA/SEBASTIEN NOGIER

MOSCOW, March 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s League for Safe Internet continues the fight against screenings of French movie La Vie d'Adele (Blue Is the Warmest Colour) in Russian cinemas. Experts of this organization claim that the movie contains pornographic scenes with participation of minors. The League’s press service reported on Thursday that the organization filed a request with Russia’s Ministry of Culture asking to strip the film of its lending license.

“On general release, the film continues to be screened, and it can be freely found on the internet. This is unacceptable, and we’re urging the Ministry of Culture to draw attention to the system of providing film lending licenses, so that the license could be revoked from La Vie d'Adele and in the future, such films would not receive them,” the press service quoted the League’s executive director Denis Davydov.

The organization has also filed a request with Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office asking to review the cases of law breach and public morality violations shown in the movie. “We have sent the conclusions of the League’s experts to the Prosecutor General’s office, where we have noted that the movie contains propaganda of pedophilia, and this is violation of our laws and basic civil ethics,” Davydov said.

In January 2014, Davydov stated that, as soon as the film La Vie d'Adele came out and its distribution began on the internet, the hotlines of the League started receiving claims on the movie’s contents with links to websites where the movie was hosted. The League’s experts have studied the movie and came to univocal unfavorable conclusions that, foremost, the movie contains scenes of pornographic nature, and second, that the participants of these acts are minors, according to the script.

La Vie d'Adele also known as Blue Is the Warmest Color of French director Abdellatif Kechiche came out in 2013. The movie is based on the graphic novel by Julie Maroh ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’. The film won the Palme d’Or at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, but triggered a controversial reaction of the society and cinema critics.

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