Russians have stolen Ukrainian animated feature Mavka
A Russian cinema announced the screening of a Ukrainian-made cartoon. When selling tickets for ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ the cinema offers an additional service called 'pre-screening service', during which they illegally show the animated film Mavka.
This was reported by the creators of the Mavka film on their Instagram page.
"MAVKA just forcibly became a part of this new scheme of pirate release imposed by russia — within which they sell tickets for one film and screen another instead, calling it “pre-session service," the page says.
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, global film producers broke off their cooperation with Russian cinemas. However, the Russian Federation has found a way to continue broadcasting world films, including the Ukrainian Mavka film. Russians use torrents for this purpose.
The animated feature Mavka. The Forest Song is a Ukrainian film project that was released in March 2023. The film was in production for eight years. The story was inspired by the work of the world-famous Ukrainian writer Lesya Ukrainka's Forest Song. This is a sensual story that depicts the interaction of nature with humans through the love of the main characters - a simple guy Lukash and a magical forest creature, Mavka, who lives in a magical forest full of mysterious creatures, spirits and animals.
During its first month of release, Mavka broke box office records in Ukraine. The Ukrainian animated film has been successfully released worldwide. More than 80 countries have screened Mavka. In particular, the debut of the cartoon in France made it the leader on the first day of release.
"As of April 4, 160,827 tickets were sold for the animated film in France. This means the second best opening weekend in the French national box office in 2023, fifth place in the French national box office for the week and 5% of the French cinema market," the State Film Agency said.
So far, the cartoon's box office receipts in Ukraine have reached $3,894,736 million, in France – €3.5 million, in Italy – more than €1 million.