Ukraine has banned the release of the upcoming Russian family comedy Mamy 3 (Moms 3) on the grounds that it allegedly contains “Russian chauvinism.”
Ukraine’s expert commission on film exhibition ruled that the movie demonstrates “chauvinism of the Russian nation” and is therefore unsuitable for Ukrainian viewers, production company Enjoy Movies said in a press release, quoted by Gazeta.ru.
“Our franchise has many viewers in Ukraine, and this ban will, unfortunately, prevent them from watching the final part, which I believe is unacceptable,” the film’s director and producer Georgy Malkov was quoted as saying in the press release.
“This is a good-natured, New Year’s-themed story, which has no chauvinist element to it,” he went on to say. “We really regret the fact that Ukrainian viewers are being denied a chance of watching it out of political considerations.”
Moms 3, a $2 million family comedy, is scheduled for release in Russia on Dec. 25. The franchise’s previous two parts were released in 2012 and did well at the box office.
Since relations between Russia and Ukraine soured earlier this year in the wake of the Maidan revolution in Kiev and Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, Ukraine has banned several dozen Russian movies. Most of them glorified Russia’s army, police and special forces or featured actors Mikhail Porechenkov and Ivan Okhlobystin.
Both actors recently have visited the Donbass region, controlled by pro-Russian separatists, to express support for them, and Porechenkov even fired a machine gun at Ukrainian forces during his visit.
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