Several St. Petersburg cinemas, including the Aurora and Rodina theaters, have refused to host a large retrospective of Alexander Sokurov’s films timed to the director’s 75th birthday, filmmaker Lyubov Arkus announced on April 14.

“For the past four years, not a single Sokurov film has been released — none have been granted distribution certificates. He’s on some kind of blacklist, one that I am also on. As we found out through indirect channels, the list was not drawn up by the Culture Ministry, and Putin was not the one who initiated it,” Arkus wrote in her Telegram channel.

She added that at the same time the St. Petersburg cinemas were declining to participate, it emerged that Nikita Mikhalkov had invited Sokurov to the 48th Moscow International Film Festival, where the director is to be awarded a prize for his contribution to world cinema.

“The Lord’s world is a wondrous thing,” Arkus said.

In 2023, Russia banned Alexander Sokurov’s film about Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and Churchill meeting in hell from distribution. Sokurov said after that decision that his “professional career is over,” saying he could no longer work — neither making films nor teaching. “Where am I supposed to go now? What am I supposed to do? I’m a Russian person, I have a Russian passport. Why should I have to make my career abroad? Why should I be the one to leave, and not them?” Sokurov said.

Alexander Sokurov turns 75 on June 14.