Drug police charge Russian theaters for screening Scorsese movie

© Paramount (2013)

13:52 17/03/2014

NOVOSIBIRSK, March 17 (RAPSI) - The Federal Drug Control Service’s Novosibirsk office has charged ten Novosibirsk movie theaters with administrative violations for screening ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.’ The court will try the case, a court representative told RIA Novosti Monday.

The Novosibirsk office had announced that it would fine movie theaters for showing the Hollywood hit, starring Leonardo Di Caprio, for promoting drug use. However, there has been no decision yet to remove the movie from distribution. The head of the Federal Drug Control Service, Viktor Ivanov, told journalists that no instructions had been given to the local office.

Nevertheless, a spokesperson for the Novosibirsk office told RIA Novosti that there were no plans to withdraw the charges in the wake of Ivanov’s statement.

Previously, another representative of the agency said that the movie theaters could be fined between 800,000 and 1 million rubles and have their equipment confiscated, plus they could receive a 90-day company freeze for screening the film. The director of the Cinema Park movie theater chain, Pavel Danyshin, said he objects to the charges on the grounds that the screening complies with the Ministry of Culture’s distribution permit.

The ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ by Martin Scorsese is based on the memoirs of stockbroker Jordan Belfort who set up a successful brokerage firm in 1987 but was convicted of money laundering ten years later. The movie, controversial for its excessive sexual content and portrayal of drug use, gained the largest box office figures in Scorsese’s career.