A Venice court on Wed. has ruled that Georgian director Rusudan Glurjidze’s drama “The Antique,” which depicts the mass deportation of Georgians from the country by Russian authorities, can play at the Venice Film Festival after a legal dispute alleged to be Russian campaign against the movie had blocked its planned screenings.
A statement issued by the festival’s independently run Venice Days sidebar said the court 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,” it added.
Set in 2006 in Russia, “The Antique” touches on the deportation of thousands of Georgians from the country at the time.
As previously reported, the Venice Days organizers and the fest’s parent org, the Venice Biennale, last week canceled the press and industry screening of “The Antique” after prominent Italian media lawyer Bruno Della Ragione, who was hired by three production companies — Viva Film in Russia, Avantura Film in Croatia and Pygmalion in Cyprus — obtained an emergency injunction from the Court of Venice over an alleged copyright dispute regarding the film’s script.
Asked about details of this legal dispute, Glurjidze at a press conference last week said: “I am a filmmaker, not a lawyer. But I can tell you that I am in the middle of Europe and I am being censored. I think this is very worrying.”
Venice days fought against the injunction using a 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 attorney Guendalina Ponti, that is the sidebar’s advisor.
There was no immediate comment from Glurjidze who will be holding a press conference tomorrow.
Source Agencies
