Russia's Inter-Religious Council, which included Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist leaders, has warned that “creative freedom” must reflect moral and spiritual criteria, to prevent writers and artists from “ridiculing the sacred and debasing religious and national values”.
In the Russian Federation, neither Catholics nor Protestants are part of the Inter-religious Council, which since 1998 has brought together the leaders of those four major religious traditions in the country. “Freedom of creativity and self-expression, like any other freedom, is not absolute - its implementation must be restricted by respect for the rights of other persons, worldview groups and religious communities,” the Moscow-based Council said last Friday. “There should be no justification for creating works of art deliberately aimed at offending human dignity by distorting facts or defaming key figures from our national history.”
The statement was published as controversy continued over “Matilda”, a film by the award-winning director Alexei Uchitel about Tsar Nicholas II’s youthful affair with a Polish-Russian ballerina, Matilda Krzesinska (1872-1971), which some Orthodox groups have sought to have banned. It said creative freedom was being “routinely used” to “ridicule holiness, propagate immorality and deride religious and national principles”, adding that people of culture and art should become more aware of how their work impacted “on society’s general spiritual state”.
A man holding an icon protests outside the Karo 11 Oktyabr cinema ahead of the premiere of Alexei Uchitel's film 'Matilda'. Orthodox groups have called for the film to be banned.
“The state should not act in the sphere of culture and art with force, but should support creative efforts which foster stronger social unity and inter-faith harmony,” said the Council, which meets under the honorary presidency of the country’s Orthodox Patriarch Kirill. “All true culture should contain within it a moral impulse, which awakens human spirits in the search for goodness and truth.”
PICTURE: Director Alexei Uchitel (C) at the Moscow premiere of his historical drama film Matilda at the Karo 11 Oktyabr Cinema on 24 October
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