Actor Gromov from Balabanov's film commented on the possible ban of "Cargo 200"

The possible ban of Alexei Balabanov's film "Cargo 200" is an attempt to regulate art. In fact, this movie is based on historical facts. Actor Leonid Gromov, who starred in this project, told Izvestia on August 14.

"It was such a period in the country. <...> It's not like that, of course, it's a made-up story, partly. That is, they (events. — Ed.) occurred in different places, at different times, during the Soviet Union, or rather, after its collapse. That's why I don't see anything scary here. I probably shouldn't show it to young children, but Balabanov is actually a talented director, that's a fact," he said.

In addition, Gromov stressed that he, just like many modern public figures from the field of culture, is not an art critic, and in order to talk about art you need to be "at least an academician [literary critic Dmitry] Likhachev or [cultural critic Yuri] Lotman."

"Talking about how to regulate art is ridiculous. They've been trying to do this all their lives, but art survives anyway. And talented people, of course, should be ahead of everything," he concluded.

On August 14, information appeared in the media that the State Duma deputy, Honored Artist of Russia Elena Drapeko, allegedly proposed banning Balabanov's films that "do not correspond to spiritual and moral values." The deputy, in an interview with Izvestia, stated that her words about the ban on films by Russian and Soviet directors were distorted.

Later, film critic Mikhail Trofimenko, in an interview with Izvestia, stated that it was Balabanov who managed to catch the "noise of time." At the same time, as Trofimenko noted, the director's films "do not contain cruelty for the sake of cruelty."

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