Georgian Anti-Putin Film ‘The Antique’ Allowed To Screen At Venice After Emergency Decree Overturned

Zac Ntim and Melanie Goodfellow
·3 min read

Georgian anti-Putin drama The Antique, which has its Venice debut suspended after a copyright complaint, is now free to screen at this year’s festival.

The U-turn was confirmed this afternoon by the festival. The film will screen on September 6. The decision will be discussed tomorrow at a public meeting in Venice with the filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze, Venice Days President Francesco Ranieri Martinotti, Artistic Director Gaia Furrer, and attorney Fabio Moretti.

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The Antique had its screenings suspended last week after an emergency decree was filed on behalf of Russian and Croatian producers claiming copyright issues with the screenplay. The claims were contested by the film’s Georgian producers and its sales agent MPM International, while the Italian media, which first reported the suspension, is suggesting the move to prevent the film screening is politically motivated.

The drama takes inspiration from the real-life illegal expulsion of thousands of Georgian nationals from Russia in 2006, which included the film’s director Rusudan Glurjidze.

The deportations were part of the so-called 2006 Georgian–Russian espionage controversy, sparked by Georgia’s arrest of a number of Russian military officers on charges of espionage and terrorism when Vladimir Putin was in his first term as Russian president.

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The Giornate degli Autori (previously known as Venice Days) sidebar had issued a statement on Tuesday saying it was suspending the first press and industry screening of the film on Wednesday “in agreement” with the Venice Film Festival’s parent body, La Biennale di Venezia Foundation, in the wake of the decree issued by the Court of Venice. The decree does not legally prevent the screening of the film, but the Biennale is believed to have asked for the screenings to be suspended while the matter is resolved.

“We never for one second stopped supporting the unalienable rights of the filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze, that is, the imperative for her film to be shown to audiences in Venice,” Martinotti said of the u-turn afternoon.

“With this in mind, we decided, with the solidarity of all the filmmakers’ associations, to present a counterclaim to the Court of Venice, engaging a team of lawyers made up of Fabio Moretti, Manuela Molinari, and Giulio Berrino, at the international law firm Castaldipartners, which acted in concert with the attorney Guendalina Ponti, our advisor.”

Martinotti added: “The Court of Venice ruled in favor of our claim and explicitly authorized the screening, in recognition of the filmmaker’s moral rights. We can well say, then, that justice has been served, with respect to the cinematic arts, the creatives involved, the Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze, and her film itself. Above all, a precedent has been set for the Venice Film Festival as well, which will benefit the future of filmmakers everywhere.”

Glurjidze directed The Antique from a screenplay from a screenplay she also penned. The film stars Salome Demuria, Sergey Dreyden, and Vladimir Daushvili. The official synopsis reads: Lado, a Georgian smuggler, transports antiques to St. Petersburg, where he meets Medea, an immigrant at an antique workshop. Vadim, a lonely elderly man, bonds with Medea. Their lives intersect amidst smuggling, survival, and connection.

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