Filmmaker Sergei Klado and TV journalist Irina Malikova have won Russia's first-ever human rights film award for "The Lizard Effect", which reveals the harassment of environmentalists in the country
The Lizard Effect
Filmmaker Sergei Klado and tv journalist Irina Malikova have won Russia's first-ever human rights film award for "The Lizard Effect", which reveals the harassment of environmentalists in the country. The 52-minute movie states that there is a steady erosion of civil and environmental rights in today's Russia. It also avers that greens are even being viewed as threats to national security.
The film's title refers to a self-preservation trait in lizards: their ability to re-grow their tails after losing them to attacks. Klado hints that communism is displaying its "lizard effect" in Russia. The movie depicts the resurgence of strong-arm, Soviet-style methods under Vladimir Putin, including the emergence of a new kind of kgb. Unsavoury kgb tactics such as encouraging citizens to spy on each other -- are yet to be discontinued, it reveals.
Klado maintains that the Soviet system has suffered only partial destruction. The documentary also informs that the erstwhile Soviet Union's legacy of environmentally-hazardous industries are still awaiting clean-up. Russian tv channels have thus far declined to air the controversial film. Klado says he is ready to dispatch videotapes to anyone willing to watch the documentary.
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