“It provokes intrusive memories”
The prosecutor filed a lawsuit. He demanded that the distribution of The Green Elephant (1999), The Ninja Assassin (2009) and The Glass Experiment (2020) be recognized as prohibited in Russia. The prosecutor noted that the pictures contained “scenes of violence, dismembering of the human body” and showed “other methods of murder in a particularly brutal way”. At the same time, as the prosecutor’s office emphasized, these tapes can be watched freely on the Internet. As evidence, Plaintiff provided four links to sites where the listed films were released without “circle of people and age restrictions.”
Situation taken into account st. Petersburg Oktyabrsky District Court (previously banned the Happy tree friends animated series and several anime in Russia). The court brought in experts to solve the problem.
Controversial tapes, St. It was studied by the staff of the St. Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education. They concluded that if films are viewed by minors, “this content may be harmful to mental health, including containing risk factors for suicidal behaviour.” Particular attention was paid to the cult of the “Green Elephant” in the court decision published by the press service.
“For example, the movie “Green Elephant” contains information that is harmful to the psychological health of minors, as it depicts wild murder events in a naturalistic way with anatomical details and may cause fear, horror or panic in children. “The movie contains scenes of mental violence where people are forced to act in a degrading manner,” he said.
st. Petersburg Academy felt that “the shocking plot and video sequence provoked intervening memories-experiences.” The message states, “A prolonged emotional state that persists even after exposure to such informational materials has a erratic effect on human behavior.”
Petersburg court, in agreement with the prosecutor’s office, banned the distribution of these films in Russia.
The absurdity of “Green Elephant” collides with the absurdity of reality
The director and actors of the film, which became famous in Russia thanks to this tape, reacted to the Green Elephant ban.
“Forbidding something is always a weakness. There are already so many prohibitions that all young souls are running in the direction of the prohibition. Because on the one hand it is fear, on the other hand, of course, it is mysterious. I’m so glad the Green Elephant ban has come. Rather, it increases the quality of our work.” declaration Actor Sergei Pakhomov (Pakhom), who played one of the two main roles of the tape.
Banning the movie won’t work, because it’s already an “element,” and the artist believes it’s the same as banning the sky or banning the grass.
Green Elephant director Svetlana Baskova admitted that she did not understand why the court decided to restrict the distribution of her tape.
“It was an art house expression taken from tape. It was not a business of distributing films. I’m 23 years ago [фильм] made. I don’t understand what the court’s decision is. What does forbidden mean? It wasn’t on Netflix. I think this is a narrow-minded move. They just draw attention to this movie” thinks baskov
HE IS AdditionalHe would “never get any age marks” for the Green Elephant. Baskova declared that she has no rights over the painting. Pakhomov statedThe Green Elephant is “not even legally sanctioned at the copyright level”.
“I would never spread that [«Зеленого слоника»], to be honest, did not contribute and did not want to. Because I think my painting came out really heavy and tragic. And I was worried that I would not cause mental harm to someone, ”the director admitted.
Now, according to Baskova, she is “totally indifferent” to the film. “They’re still watching—and I can’t say it pleases me or is somehow connected to me,” she summed up.
Pakhomov, on the other hand, believes that the Green Elephant is “very important for children, because it tells how scary the future is”.
“The absurdity of the Green Elephant is now very well grounded on the absurdity and meaninglessness of reality. Now existence is in crisis – especially planet Earth and Russia. <...> Remember: the world is over, the culture is over, the book is over, the word is over, the movie is over, everything is over,” the actress explained earlier.
actor Vladimir Epifantsev, who played the second main role in Green Elephant, declarationthat the initiators merely develop their roles, and that the situation itself is designed to arouse irritation and hostility in people.
“This movie <...> about what I like. It’s hard to see, but young people do. The truth is, people of the older generation don’t see that,” he said.
He added that today’s students feel the futility of learning and share what seems closer to them, and that the “Green Elephant” has become much closer to them than “any school programme.”
What is the Green Elephant about?
Baskova shot the movie Green Elephant in 1999 with an amateur video camera. According to the plot, two soldiers of the Russian army (Pakhomov and Epifantsev) are serving their sentences in a guard house in 1986. The film tells the story of Pakhomov’s hero, a “traveled” officer, about his sexual adventures, experience of bowel movements, etc. It begins when he starts to annoy his neighbor with inconsistent stories with details about him. The tape was shot in the genre of “thrash” and is full of scenes of necrophilia, coprofile, murder, and the dialogues are made of obscene language.
Some phrases from the film and footage were distributed on the Internet in Russian and became memes. So “I brought you food”, “Yes, be human, it has gained great fame. After all, we’re human”, “You know it’s gone, that’s all”, “It’s better not to change your ass when we do push-ups.”
Critics Andrey Plakhov and Alexander Pavlov described the painting as “a brutal anti-militarist parable.” Baskova said the film was made “with pain about our country.”
“For me, this is a tragic picture of the decay of the army at the time. While the movie itself is not just about war or the military, it does describe the state of society as a whole at that moment. Yes, there is a lot of profanity in the picture – but swearing was more useful then than it is now. And its use was a tool for telling the truth that we weren’t told at the time – at least through the mat you understand what’s really going on,” he said.
As Baskova puts it, the relevance of the film “depends on the reaction of the audience.” “The artist does what reflects reality. So it was she. And it is no longer the artist who decides whether he hit the target, ”the director said.
Pakhomov explained on the tape that “there is only one kind of fixation on such common components: like feces, like urine, like pain, like joy.” The actor explained that it was “important for him to throw out everything that has accumulated” and that there was a “very high” degree of improvisation on set. “We were a group of marginalized militants, and in the culture only that brings success. Success only comes when you are angry, hungry and unhappy,” he said.
Actor Epifantsev also admitted that “Green Elephant” “caused embarrassment after watching it”. “This isn’t even a movie, it’s very psychedelic. <...> This is probably some kind of protest in the cinema. <...> The movie is complex. <...> This “Green Elephant” also seems very unnecessary to me. But on the other hand, films such as therapy are sometimes necessary, ”the artist expresses his feelings.
Source: Gazeta
