MOSCOW - A prominent Russian screenwriter working on a film about Tchaikovsky's life that has just received state financing set off a firestorm this week by saying that the biopic would not focus on the composer's sexuality because “it is far from a fact that Tchaikovsky was a homosexual.â€
“Only philistines think this,†the screenwriter, Yuri Arabov, told the newspaper Izvestia of the commonly accepted view of Tchaikovsky's sexual orientation. “What philistines believe should not be shown in films.â€
Mr. Arabov, who is known for his screenplays for films by Alexander Sokurov about the inner lives of Lenin, Hitler and Emperor Hirohito, told the newspaper in an interview published Aug. 20 that the movie, which is called “Tchaikovsky†and scheduled for release in 2015, would show Russia's most revered composer as a man who “is marked by rumors and suffers greatly from this.â€
Contemporary scholars still debate how Tchaikovsky died, with some claiming that he was driven to suicide out of torment over his sexuality. For decades, the cause of death was reported as cholera.
Mr. Arabov's comments came amid the continuing controversy over anti-gay legislation passed in Russia recently that has prompted calls for boycotts against Russian goods and for the 2014 Winter Olympics to be relocated. The Games are scheduled to open in the Russian resort city of Sochi in February.
In an open letter addressed to Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and the International Olympic Committee this month, the British actor Stephen Fry compared Russia to Nazi Germany and claimed that referring to Tchaikovsky as gay was regarded as a crime in Russia.
“Any statement, for example, that Tchaikovsky was gay and that his art and life reflects this sexuality and are an inspiration to other gay artists would be punishable by imprisonment,†he wrote.
This week, Wentworth Miller, who starred on the Fox television show “Prison Break,†turned down an invitation to a film festival in St. Petersburg, writing to the festival's director that he could not participate in an event in “a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly.â€
Mr. Arabov told Izvestia that he would “not sign my name to a film that advertises homosexuality.†He said his aversion was “not because I don't have a gay friend, but because this is outside the sphere of art.â€
“Tchaikovsky†is being directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, one of the most successful theater and film directors in post-Soviet Russia, who has so far managed both to criticize the government and to secure state financing.
Russia's culture ministry has stressed that it is interested in patriotic films that will help Russia's image, and infuriated some liberals by turning down a World War II-themed film by Alexander Mindadze, a veteran film director. On Friday, a historian who serves on a military advisory board to the ministry told the Interfax news agency that Mr. Mindadze had been persuaded to shift the film's chronology to avoid historical inaccuracies.
On Wednesday, Mr Serebrennikov posted what he described as a synopsis of a film about Tchaikovsky, describing it as “the true story of the tragic love and death of the brilliant Russian composer,†in which he runs into his first love at a ball only to find that she is married. When she finally leaves her husband, the composer dies of cholera with her at his side.
One commentator noted that this was the synopsis of “Es War Eine Rauschende Ballnacht,†a 1939 German film about Tchaikovsky. In English, the title is “It Was a Gay Ballnight.â€
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 23, 2013
An earlier version of this post misspelled the surname of the reporter. She is Sophia Kishkovsky, not Kishkovksy.
