A film about the love life of the last tsar has opened in Russia after months of debate, threats and attempted arson attacks on cinemas showing previews.



The Moscow premiere of Matilda, which chronicles an affair between the future Nicholas II and the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, took place amid heightened security on Tuesday evening.

Seven Russian Orthodox religious activists were detained by police outside the cinema for attempting to stage a protest against the film.

Though the film is a fairly standard costumed romance, the last tsar and his immediate family, who were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918, were made saints by the Russian Orthodox church in 2000.

The film portrays Nicholas as bumbling and indecisive, and includes a number of soft-focus sex scenes between him and his lover. The film’s dark ending foreshadows the bloodletting that would follow Nicholas II’s reign, with two revolutions and then a civil war.



The cast of Matilda during filming. Photograph: AP

The film’s release comes in the centenary year of Russia’s two revolutions, amid heightened sensitivity about the country’s historical traumas. Many religious Russians feel the cinematic portrayal of his affair is inappropriate.

The campaign against the film has been led by Natalia Poklonskaya, an MP from Crimea who has a portrait of Nicholas II in her office, who has called for anything besmirching his image to be banned.

Last month, Orthodox Christian extremists attempted to set fire to a cinema in Ekaterinburg that was screening the film, and also set alight two cars outside the Moscow offices of a lawyer for the film’s director, Alexei Uchitel.

“I think the film’s release is not just a victory for the film or for Alexei Uchitel, but for all decent people, who are the absolute majority in Russia,” said Uchitel at a press conference on Tuesday before the premiere.

Police officers detain an Orthodox protester carrying a portrait of Nicholas II outside a cinema in Moscow. Photograph: Pavel Golovkin/AP

The controversy around the film has highlighted the delicate line the Russian authorities walk in the arts sphere. Having harnessed public anger over those who “insult” the Orthodox church in the case of Pussy Riot, the Kremlin has tried to rein it in with Matilda.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, condemned the violence, and police arrested the head of a group of Orthodox extremists who had promised to burn down cinemas showing the film.

The prosecutor general’s office said there was nothing illegal in the film, rejecting Poklonskaya’s complaints.

“They arrested a few people, and then everything calmed down. I think we are dealing with the sick fantasies of a small number of people,” said Grigory Dobrygin, who plays Grand Duke Andrei, Nicholas II’s cousin and the eventual husband of Kshesinskaya.

Uchitel’s film has many powerful backers, as evidenced by the many members of the artistic and political elite in attendance at the premiere.

Uchitel, who is not known as a dissident, signed a letter in 2014 supporting the Russian annexation of Crimea. Valery Gergiev, a star conductor who is a supporter of Putin’s, conducted the Mariinsky theatre’s orchestra for the film’s soundtrack.



Director Alexei Uchitel speaks to the media at the premiere of Matilda in Moscow. Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Despite the official backing, organisers are not taking any chances with security. Alexei Ryazantsev, director of the Caro-Premier distribution company, said there would be additional security at cinemas showing the film during the opening weekend, and a decision would be taken about ongoing security measures after that.

The film will be shown on 2,200 screens nationwide, which Ryazantsev said put it on a par with the biggest-budget Russian and foreign films.

“We have seen some isolated letters with threats, but police in the regions are reacting very quickly,” he said.

Michalina Olszańska, the Polish actor who plays Kshesinskaya, and Lars Eidinger, the German actor who plays Nicholas II, have declined to travel to Russia for the premiere, citing security fears.



“Unfortunately there are some forces that threatened me, so I decided not to come to Russia. Believe me, it breaks my heart,” said Eidinger, in a pre-recorded message played on screen before the premiere.

Ballet dancer Matilda Kshesinskaya in La Esmeralda. Photograph: Heritage/Getty

On Monday, Olga Kulikovskaya-Romanova, the 91-year-old widow of Nicholas II’s nephew, released a video appeal to Putin asking for the film not to be released in Russia.

She described the film as “vile and immoral”, and said it was “an attempt by clearly anti-Russian forces to cause unrest in the country by undermining its spiritual base”.



Kulikovskaya-Romanova said Matilda was not only an insult to her, as the closest living descendant of Nicholas II, but an affront to the memory of the tsarist family and “the honour of all Russia”.