UKRAINE: Russian speakers in Ukraine protest culture ministry decision to dub all foreign-language movies into Ukrainian only

Record ID: 784073

  • Title: UKRAINE: Russian speakers in Ukraine protest culture ministry decision to dub all foreign-language movies into Ukrainian only
  • Date: 9th April 2008
  • Summary: (CEEF) KIEV, UKRAINE (RECENT) (REUTERS) MAIDAN SQUARE IN HEART OF CITY STATUE IN SQUARE EXTERIOR MINISTRY BUILDING PLATE ON WALL SAYING MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND TOURISM UKRAINE'S MINISTER OF CULTURE GANNA CHMIL CLIMBING STAIRS (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) UKRAINE'S MINISTER OF CULTURE GANNA CHMIL SPEAKING VARIOUS OF RALLY IN SUPPORT OF UKRAINIAN CINEMA AND DUBBING IN UKRAINIAN
  • Embargoed: 24th April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Reuters ID: LVA6TJANIFF5PPALS2NHY95SZEO0
  • Story Text: Ukraine's Culture Ministry backs a scheme to dub all foreign films into Ukrainian only, prompting protests and accusations of discrimination by pro-Russian politicians and Ukrainians living in the Russian-speaking east of the country.
    Ukraine's dubbing studios, and actors with fluency in Ukrainian, are in hot demand these days thanks to a new national law that stipulates all foreign-made movies to be dubbed or subtitled into Ukrainian before they can be shown in a Ukrainian cinema.
    The new rule, passed by the country's Constitutional Court in December, was designed to protect the Ukrainian language and the country's struggling film industry.
    But in a country that is already divided between a pro-European west and a pro-Russian east and south, the new law has caused anger and controversy.

    "I think it is right that they are starting to translate films into Ukrainian, because people need to know Ukraine language. We will get used to it, we will watch and understand films and forget that before we were watching films only in Russian. I don't think it will spoil the pleasure of watching a movie, everything will be OK," said Alexandra who works as a technician in a cinema.
    But in the eastern city of Kharkiv, where Russian remains the first language for most inhabitants, the new law has angered cinema-owners. They complain the Ukrainian-dubbed films have led to almost empty theatre halls and many cinema's now face closure.

    "This of course leads to a loss of cinema-goers, because of the dubbing in the Ukraine language. We now have 100 percent of dubbing into Ukrainian, so all films that are shown in this film theatre are now dubbed into the Ukrainian language. And as you can see, on a Saturday we only have seven people sitting in the hall for a 1330 show," said Mykhailo Pryimak.
    Until recently, the majority of movies shown in Ukrainian theaters were either Russian-made films or foreign movies imported from Russia and already dubbed in Russian.
    Russia's foreign ministry has expressed concern and said the new ruling is in breach with a European charter that urges authorities to disseminate movies in minority languages.
    But eager to protect the Ukrainian language from being drowned out by Russian, Ukraine's pro-western politicians are defending the law.

    "Sorry, but, why if we talk about different nationalities that live in Ukraine, we only talk about Russian language. Nobody has the right to overrule the decision of the Constitutional court and it can not be debated or appealed, it should be carried out hundred percent. The question is how we can take into consideration different interests on the one hand and follow the court decision on the other," said Ganna Chmil, an official at Ukraine's Culture Ministry.
    Last Saturday, nationalist party "Freedom" organised a rally in support of the Ukrainian dubbing issue.

    "Just look at what they have reduced us to. They have quite simply reduced us to a state of spiritual and moral slaves, we have become serfs. We are the main ethnic group in this country, we make up nearly 80 percent of the population and we find ourselves having to protect our right to watch films in Ukrainian. We must defend our right to speak our own mother tongue,"
    party leader Oleg Tyagnybok said.
    Russia and Ukrainian are both Slavic languages that are closely related, but the grammatical and pronunciational differences seem big enough to keep the country divided.
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