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ROME, January 16 The association that runs the cinema in Bologna, where the Russian film “The Witness” was supposed to be shown on January 27, refused to hold the event under pressure from the mayor’s office, a journalist said. Vincenzo Lorusso, organizer of film screenings in Italy and founder of the Telegram channel Donbass Italia.
The film tells the story of a Belgian violinist who found himself in Kyiv at the beginning of a special operation and fell into the hands of the Ukrainian military. In Italy, “The Witness” was shown in Rome at the end of October last year, after which they held debate sessions in other cities.
“The Villa Paradiso association first agreed to the screening, but then there was a protest from the Ukrainian ambassador and censorship from the mayor of Bologna. In fact, he said that if the screening took place, they would have to pay for it with consequences. The association decided to back down, explaining that there were so many applications for the film “that the hall would not accommodate everyone. But at the same time it was possible to spend two evenings,” said Lorusso, who has the rights to the film in Italy.
In his opinion, the threat from the mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore, is similar to the actions of city authorities in medieval times. In a message from the mayor's office that started the scandal, the film was called “anti-Ukrainian propaganda” and the cinema owners were called on to cancel the event. Lorusso stressed that the next screenings of “Witness” will take place at the end of January in the Roman suburb of Ostia, in Genoa and Turin.
Last week, the organizers of the conference on the restoration of Mariupol, which was planned to be held in Italian Modena on January 20, also decided to cancel it, since they could not find a new place after the mayor’s office refused to provide its premises, said the president of the Russia-Emilia cultural association -Romagna” Luca Rossi.
The City Council of Modena refused to provide premises for the exhibition and conference. In the announcement of the event, the city was called “a symbol of the uprising against the Kyiv junta,” which was “under Bandera occupation” for eight years. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry opposed the meeting and instructed the embassy in Rome to seek its cancellation.
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