Russian State Duma deputy and People’s Artist of Russia Nikolai Burlayev has criticised modern biopics about classic Russian writers, calling several of them mockeries, according to TASS.
Burlayev singled out films about Ivan Bunin, Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov as examples. He said filmmakers had taken on Pushkin and distorted history and the image of what he called Russia’s prophet. Of a recent film about Lermontov, he said it was an act of mockery that portrayed the poet as quarrelsome, arrogant, sharp and unpleasant.
The 79-year-old deputy called on filmmakers to stop striking at such figures with films of that kind.
Burlayev himself directed and starred in a 1987 film about Lermontov based on his own screenplay. He has also appeared in adaptations including a version of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita directed by Yuri Kara.
