Banned in its native Russia for ‘biting social commentary’, Victor Ginzburg’s sci-fi horror film Empire V gets a first trailer today exclusively from Deadline, ahead of its world premiere at Montreal’s Fantasia Festival in July.
Based on a 2006 satirical novel by Victor Pelevin, Empire V follows:
…a 19-year-old Moscow nobody who receives an invitation to join an elite and powerful echelon of society, only to discover the bloody secrets of a vampiric dictatorship who has controlled humanity since time immemorial.
Well, we can definitely see why that’s controversial! Empire V stars popular Russian rapper Oxxymiron (real name Miron Yanovich Fyodorov) whose anti-war stance combined with the film’s subject matter led to it being pulled from theaters by the Kremlin just one week prior to the film’s release.
The film is produced by America’s Heartland Films and Russia Kvadrat Film Company, as well as Andrey Trubitsyn, Maria Kapralova, Alexei Tylevich and James Steele.
In a statement, director Ginzburg expressed his thoughts on the Empire V‘s rejection by its home country:
“For me, Empire V was an opportunity to experiment in the vampire genre but within a uniquely challenging narrative structure: telling a post-modern Moscow love story against the backdrop of a ruthless satire of modern civilization while retaining Pelevin’s brutal eye for the ironies of Russian society. Of course, there was the opportunity to design and create never before seen worlds and creatures […] For the first time in my life, when I was confronted with the ugly specter of state censorship, it was a heartbreaking feeling for me and for all the people who put years of work and love into this film. The same goes for literally millions of Russian fans that have been waiting for the release, many of whom helped crowdfund this truly independent film.”
If you’re lucky enough to be at Fantasia, you can catch Empire V next month – for everyone else, hold tight and hopefully Reel Suspects (who is handling international sales on the title) will have a release date for us soon!
