Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac apologises to Sokurov for Bengal CPM’s 2001 protest against ‘Taurus’

Isaac’s apology to Sokurov came at the concluding ceremony of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). (Source: Facebook)

Kerala Finance Minister and CPM central committee member TM Thomas Isaac on Friday publicly apologized to Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov for the manner in which his film ‘Taurus’, portraying the last years of Lenin, was targeted by the then Bengal CPM leadership 16 years ago at a film festival in Kolkata. Taurus is Lenin’s star sign.

In 2001, prominent Bengal CPM leaders Jyoti Basu and Biman Bose had hit out at Sokurov for portraying Lenin in bad light and questioned the festival’s screening committee for showing the film to the public. Bose then told the Guardian newspaper that the film distorted historical facts. The state was then ruled by the CPM and the chief minister was Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

However, in those years, films of Sokurov such as ‘The Russian Ark’ and ‘Mother and Son’ were received very well at film festivals in Kerala, which has alternatively seen Communist and Congress governments over the years.

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Isaac’s apology to Sokurov came at the concluding ceremony of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in Thiruvananthapuram where the Russian filmmaker was honoured with the lifetime achievement award. With Sokurov sitting on the dais, Isaac, during his English speech, asked the translator to ensure his apology was conveyed to him.

This is Sokurov’s first-ever visit to India.