In a press conference at the Venice Days Sala Laguna the director of the film Rusudan Glurjidze spoke out about the cancellation of the screenings of her film saying that she was being censored because of the content of the film which is critical of the Russian government. The film was shot in St Petersburg just before the outbreak of the war in the Ukraine and is about the mass deportations of Georgians from Russia in 2006.

She said “We did our best to deliver this story to the audience and then in one minute it’s all off. I’m speechless. I’m in the middle Europe and I am being censored.”

The screenings of the film were halted by the directors of the Venice Days after a decree by the Court of Venice, obtained by the companies Viva Film (Russia), Avantura Film (Croatia), and Pygmalion (Cyprus) over a copyright dispute regarding the film’s script. The Venice Days said in a statement that the court decree “has prompted us, for now, in agreement with the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, to suspend the screenings of the film although the above-mentioned court order does not clearly bar the screening of the film.”

The director of the film Glurjidze said: “The story is set in modern-day St Petersburg during the illegal mass expulsions of Georgian migrants from Russia. It was inspired by real events that caused great distress to my country and me personally. This cruel deportation campaign was aimed exclusively at Georgian citizens. It was the result of an abrupt worsening of already strained political relations between the two countries. In the first few days, 2,680 Georgians were expelled.” The Georgian producer of the majority Georgian production is Cinetech.