Speakers of Swedish and Norwegian Vikings in the first week of 2017 provided the Russians a real “Viking-shock”: they are raped, arrange human sacrifice and participate in an endless massacre.
Within two weeks, the film became extremely successful in the Russian box office, collecting ten days of 1.2 billion rubles.
“The Russians want to be Scandinavians,” writes the newspaper Gazeta.ru.
“Viking” is a long, very expensive and a colorful Orgy of violence in which the Prince and future Holy Vladimir, being in the intoxication from hallucinogenic mushrooms, raging with your friends, the Vikings, until she suddenly begins to see the light and finds God.
This film is about what President Vladimir Putin last year announced the most important event in the history of Russia, making Orthodoxy the ancient state of Kievan Rus.
Waldemar baptized Kievan Rus
Norwegian Vladimir is better known as Valdemar, a close relative of several prominent rulers of the Vikings of Norway.
His ancestor was the Swedish Viking Rurik, who founded a Royal dynasty that was destined to rule Russia for 600 years.
In 977 Vladimir fled to his kinsman Haakon the Mighty Trondelag.
Spending in Norway for three years, Vladimir raised an army, which helped him to win the Novgorod and the Kiev government have a brother Yaropolk.
The Vikings fell into a frenzy to the delight and horror of the Russian
The film became the cause of heated discussion about the history of Russia, the role of the Church and how murder, sex and rape can actually withstand 12-year-old Russian Teens.
In a controversial bloody scenes Vladimir contributes to the death of his brother.
He rapes his future wife Ragnhild “Rogando” Ragvaldsgatan (Ragnhild “Rogynda” Ragnvaldsdatter), kills father-in-law and mother-in-law and throwing one bloodbath after another.
In between the film shows the human sacrifices, drunken revelry and intense sex scenes.
Approved by Putin and the Kremlin
In November, Putin just opened a giant monument to Prince Vladimir at the walls of the Kremlin. The opening was attended by the elite of the Russian authorities.
“He laid the moral Foundation on which is based our life,” Putin said. Along with the Church he now rewrites the history of Russia.
© Direktsiya Kino/Central partnership (2016)scene from the movie “Viking”
Film created by Director Andrei Kravchuk controlled by Putin, “channel one”. In addition to the enormous amount of free advertising in the news the film is described as an event of international scope.
“Would love to see the movie again,” admitted Putin has described the film as “an art, not a documentary work.”
Therefore, the film caused a scandal
Despite the approval of Putin, “Viking” underwent a major criticism:
Representatives of the Orthodox Church are indignant at the fact that Prince Vladimir is depicted a brutal, dirty, filthy murderer.
The opposition considers the film as another example of the Kremlin’s cultural propaganda that poisons and distorts the image of Russia.
Russian nationalists think that the film offends the great Russian culture.
Historians have found a lot of mistakes and historical falsifications.
Most controversial, however, was the moment when one of the most famous Russian young movie stars naked, bathed in blood and has sex with the Holy Prince.
And rental still considers rubles.
“The film is a disgrace for Russia”
“This is not advertising. This is propaganda,” writes the Russian writer Evgeny Grishkovets in his blog.
“The film is not just bad. He’s a disgrace. In this historical truth as much as the stories about the hobbit or Star wars.
“In fact, the viewer with a very simple choice: either immediately be filled with disgust to everything and quickly escape from a session back home, or begin to catch a sadomasochistic thrill from the bloody Guignol with battle axes,” writes “Bill”.
A masterpiece, sure-minded Pro-Kremlin journalists
The creation of this film took a lot of money and seven years of hard work. Despite widespread criticism, the Viking praised for movie effects and technical details associated with clothing, weapons, jewelry, makeup, rooks Vikings and their homes.
The filmmakers built, for example, an entire Viking settlement in the Crimea, and also “recreated” the extinct language of the steppe nomads-the Pechenegs.
The Vikings leads the Swedish actor Joakim Natterqvist from the movie “ARN: the Templar knight” filmed on the basis of a trilogy by Jan Guillou (Jan Guillou)
“Historical reconstruction is simply a masterpiece” — says the editor of the Pro-Kremlin daily “Komsomolskaya Pravda” experiencing some relief in the fact that the filmmakers did not let the Vikings play too important a role in Russian history.
According to the newspaper, opponents of the theory that the Russian state was created by aliens from the outside — by the Normans, can be calm.
“He’s hurting our kids”
Child psychologists want to ban the film, which, in their opinion, may forever mentally hurt Russian children.
“Our ancestors are shown as a wild flock, brutish people, who do not know what beauty or honor,” writes child psychologist Ian goloshchapova in Kp.ru.
For the most part the film was shot in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.
Here right near Simferopol, the filmmakers built a large Viking settlement. Currently the settlement is located the Park of entertainment and recreation.
“The Russians want to be from Scandinavia!”
Also, the authors of the film has been criticized from different sides for the very title of the film.
The fact that it is contrary to the new official story Putin, the Church and the Kremlin, which teaches Russian students that the first public education in Russia had nothing in common with the Scandinavian Vikings.
© Directorate of Films, Central partnership, 2016Кадр from the movie “Viking”
The implication that “Saint Vladimir” allegedly had something to do with the Vikings, are perceived by Russian nationalists and overly religious people as a provocation.
Last weekend the commentator Denis Dragunsky breast defended the film title in one of the largest Russian the Internet-editions.
“The film was included in “top ten” of our national aspirations. We are not there, where the desert and the taiga, the steppe and the nomadic Mongolian village. We want to be from Scandinavia,” writes Dragoon Gazeta.ru.
He believes that the popularity of the film can be partially explained by the fact that most Russians actually would like to discover the connection with Scandinavia.
“No, we are not Scythians and Asians. And they never were, writes the well-known writer, analyst and commentator. — We are the Vikings. We want to be from Scandinavia!”
He believes that the popularity of the film — a sign that the majority of Russian do not like the “Eurasian” look East, toward China.
“We must tell the world and, most importantly, ourselves, that we are originally a European country. Cultural, spiritual, linguistic and even geneticheski, if someone is important,” says Dragoon.
Per Anders Johansen (Per Anders Johansen) is a correspondent for Aftenposten in Moscow
