Putin may have banned Barbie in Russia as a symbol of the decadent West, but that hasn't stopped Moscovites and other Russians from clamoring to see Greta Gerwig's new film.
Source: Business Insider
Russia has been taken over by Barbiemania – even though the movie isn't being released there as part of a backlash to the invasion of Ukraine.
Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" was released internationally on July 21 — but not in Russia, where Warner Bros. and other Western studios abandoned the market when the invasion began in early 2022.
Nonetheless, Russian movie fans and companies are doing their best to take part anyway, showing off their pink outfits and marketing unofficial events to capitalize on the moment.
Some cinemas have been showing new movies anyway, illegally screening high-quality pirated copies — and the same is being planned for Barbie, per local reports.
Ok, so how is it being shown there? Streaming, via VPN. And dubbing pirated copies downloaded from the internet and then shown in movie theatres illegally.
It seems the way out is simple. As often happens with TV series beloved by the audience, our actors will simply re-voice the picture that got into the network. The Russian studio Red head sound decided to take on the project - it will wait for the release of Barbie on torrents, after which it will organize a fundraiser for the implementation of the film, and then release it on the screens. Dubbing actress Tatyana Shitova, who is the official voice of Margot Robbie in Russia, will take part in the project and voice Barbie.
And why are they seeing crappy copies off the internet? Because Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures have digitally marked all copies of their picture and will aggressively prosecute any offenders, as they did recently for copies originating from Kazakhstan.
The thing is that major film companies - in this case Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures were able to identify illegal sellers and uncover a scheme for supplying pirated copies of theatrical versions of films to Russia.
There were several providers. on films illegally shown in the Russian Federation, set by the distributor when transferring films to cinemas in Kazakhstan.
So "good copies" are made impossible.
