The mini-festival of Icelandic cinema in Togliatti has been canceled by the host museum due to presenter Alexei Dydochkin's anti-war views, as reported by the Kinokvartarnik project on June 23.
The festival was originally scheduled to take place from June 14 to 16. The Togliatti Art Museum's Department of Contemporary Art announced the cancellation of the event after discovering the presenter's name. The organizers stated that even with a replacement presenter, the festival would not proceed.
Alexei Dydochkin, a pacifist and libertarian, had planned the festival. The screenings will now have to be relocated to another venue, as he informed 7x7.
"The unofficial comment we received states that Alexei and any projects associated with him are considered persona non grata (verbatim) in all municipal institutions in the city," the Kinokvartarnik project says.
In early 2023, the Ministry of Culture received complaints about Alexei Dydochkin's film screenings from influential Duma member Alexander Khinstein who expressed dissatisfaction with the activist's anti-war pickets.
Since the start of the war in Russia, concerts of musicians and performances by artists who did not support the invasion of Ukraine have been increasingly canceled. Theater.doc, writer Guzel Yakhina, and musical performers such as Night Snipers, Animal Jazz, DDT, Spleen, GROT, Yaroslav Yevdokimov, Mashina Vremeni, Anacondaz, Bi-2, among others, have all faced cancellations.
On June 21, Liza Gazizova, a popular Yakut host, declined to hold a summer holiday dedicated to the participants of the war in Ukraine.
