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Film company asserts 13,000 moviegoers viewed controversial Matilda in Germany

The movie was screened in 11 German cities

© Yuri Smetyuk/TASS

MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. As many as 13,000 people in Germany have watched Alexei Uchitel’s movie Matilda, head of the international department of Uchitel’s Rok film studio Anna Shalashina told TASS on Monday.

"The first round of Matilda’s screenings in Germany is over," she said. "The film was shown in more than 100 movie theaters, over 13,000 people have watched it, which is the record number as far as any of our movies ever released in Germany go," Shalashina added.

According to her, the movie was screened in 11 German cities, in some of them it was presented by Uchitel himself, while in others presentation ceremonies involved German actor Lars Eidinger, who played the role of the future Russian Emperor Nicholas II in the movie, and other members of the cast.

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Controversial Matilda rakes in $3.9 mln at Russian box offices during its first weekend

Lars Eidinger told TASS that he was satisfied with Matilda’s screenings in Germany because the public had taken huge interest in the movie.

Shalashina also pointed out that apart from Russia, where the movie was released on October 26, it will also be shown in the Baltic States, Bulgaria and the Netherlands.

"In France, Matilda will be screened on November 8, at the opening ceremony of the Russian Film Week in Paris, while the US release is scheduled to take place on December 2. Alexei Uchitel will attend the first screening in New York, while after that, the film will be shown in Boston, Miami and several other cities," Shalashina said adding that the movie would be released in Canada in early December.

Feud over Matilda

The film by Alexei Uchitel depicts a romance between the future Russian tsar Nicholas II and ballerina Matilda Kschessinska before his marriage and coronation.

Read also

As Nicholas II and his family were executed after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000, a number of activists, including MP Natalia Poklonskaya, launched a campaign against the film, calling for its release to be cancelled and claiming that it will insult the feelings of Orthodox believers. A group calling itself Christian State - Holy Russia sent numerous letters with threats to movie theater owners across Russia, urging them to drop the screening of Matilda.

Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, in turn, said that any attempts to exert pressure on cinemas over the screenings of Matilda would amount to censorship and lawlessness. The Ministry of Culture allows the screenings at cinemas in line with legal procedures, Medinsky explained. "The law strictly lays out the grounds for any refusal. There are none of them in Matilda's case. We are guided by the law, not personal preferences."

After its release on October 26, the movie has scored around 230 mln rubes ($3.9 mln) at the box office, coming in second after the Disney-produced fantasy film The Last Warrior.

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