A film about Russia’s last tsar has had its first screening amid heavy security after attacks on a cinema and a film studio by religious extremists determined to prevent its release.
Matilda, directed by the Russian film-maker Alexei Uchitel, tells the true story of a romance between the future Nicholas II and Mathilde Kschessinska, a teenage prima ballerina at the Mariinsky theatre in St Petersburg.
Nicholas II, who was executed along with his family by Communist revolutionaries in 1918, was canonised by the Russian Orthodox church in 2000. Some Russian Orthodox Christians claim the film, which was funded by the culture ministry, is blasphemous because it portrays the “holy tsar” in love scenes.
Christian State-Holy Rus, a radical Russian Orthodox movement, warned in February that “cinemas will burn” if Matilda was screened.
The film, which was initially due for release in March, was shown in Vladivostok, in Russia’s far east, on Tuesday. The premiere was delayed by a hoax bomb threat but went ahead after a sweep of the cinema by a police bomb squad.
A second screening of the film, in Moscow, was cancelled on Monday after two cars parked outside the law firm that represents the film studio were set alight by suspected Orthodox radicals. “Burn for Matilda,” read a note left at the scene.
This month, another Orthodox Christian activist destroyed part of a cinema in Yekaterinburg, the central Russian city where the royal family was murdered, by driving into it in a minibus containing gas cylinders and a barrel of petrol.
A 39-year-old man who had previously protested against the film was arrested over the attack, which police have not classified as terrorism.
Uchitel, whose film studio in St Petersburg was targeted in an attempted arson attack in August, says police have ignored his appeals for protection.
Natalia Poklonskaya, a prominent MP with Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party, has said the film “insults the feelings of religious believers”, a criminal offence in Russia since 2013, and has called for it to be banned.
Critics accuse her of stirring up religious tensions. The Kremlin has condemned the violence but Putin said artists should strive not to upset believers. The Russian Orthodox church has urged the creative community to show “tact and respect”.