Russian kids keep getting bused to the same movie (not ‘Spider-Man’), and the institutions taking them are posting eerily similar praise for it online
School camps and municipal children’s centers across Russia are reporting in large numbers that they took children to see The Last Warrior: Kolobok. Verstka, an independent Russian news outlet, found more than 20 such posts on social media in recent days.
The posts describe how the institutions organized trips to movie theaters for the children, and they include photos from the screenings. Verstka said the posts “actively praise” the film and that the wording in some of them is similar.
Alongside these reports, claims surfaced that the Education Ministry had ordered mandatory screenings of the Kolobok film for students in grades one through nine. The ministry called the claim fake, saying the film “is successfully attracting viewers’ attention even without additional support.”
The Last Warrior: Kolobok opened in Russian theaters in early August. Because of the film, distributors reportedly asked movie theaters to postpone screenings of the blockbuster Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which was due for a gray-market release in Russia at the same time. Theaters were threatened with sanctions if they refused.
After the Spider-Man film was postponed, the creators of Kolobok faced criticism, and viewers drove down the Russian film’s rating on review aggregator sites.
The television channel Rossiya 24 complained to the prosecutor’s office and the Investigative Committee about online critics of the film, saying they had sent threats to its creators. Investigators opened a criminal case.
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