Magnus (film)

Magnus is a boy who grew up without much parental care, without feeling their love. He had been ill since childhood - and was thinking about an imminent death. Parents divorced, the young man recovered, grew up and twice tries to commit suicide. Father takes him to him. He is trying to find something for Magnus that would bring joy to his life. And Magnus is trying - drugs (not the first time, however), women. Finally, Magnus found a reliable way to commit suicide and felt that the right moment had come; his sister and father did not stop him.

The film’s final is the father’s monologue (the son of the performer of this role really committed suicide; his ex-wife and mother of the deceased demanded through the court to ban the film). The fact that in developed countries people lose faith, and therefore are ready to commit suicide. About what he thought - not to interfere with his son humanely, and after his death he came to the conclusion that his son could be saved if he needed his relatives.

05/12/2008 Harju County Court banned the screening and distribution of Kadri Kyusaar's Magnus feature film in Estonia, the European Union and elsewhere for seven years. The fact is that the film unreasonably interferes in the private life of one particular family and the mother of a person. The court ordered “to stop the distribution of the film in Estonia, the countries of the European Union and other countries in all other forms of reproduction, including on DVD, websites and other information media.”

According to the scriptwriter and director of Magnus, Kadri Kyusaar, this is a feature film, the script for which they invented themselves, and that the character of the hero, although inspired by real life, is fictitious, and his image does not violate the rights of the claimant. The court found that to identify a person it is enough to transmit partial information, on the basis of which an interested group of viewers can directly recognize a person or easily come to the conclusion about whom they are talking.

One can speak about recognition even if at least part of the audience can recognize a person based on some scenes of the film, even if the name is not called. “Recognition also takes place if a person - even if his name is not called - can be recognized by certain scenes and life situations by a part of the audience,” the court decision says.

Intervention in a person’s private life can be justified solely by social necessity, however, as the court decided, the authors of the film did not present any reasonable justification. The court found that according to the Estonian constitution there is no censorship in the country, but the freedom of expression is not unlimited.

According to the journalist Kalle Muuli, the court’s decision to ban the screening of the movie Magnus for seven years is correct, as the film describes the real life of one particular family.

“They talk only about one side of this film, they say, the film was banned, art is shut up, but this case has another side that has remained in the shadows, as many people have not read the court’s decision,” Calle Muuli said in an interview with Raadio2 .

According to him, the court’s decision is very detailed and it compares the life of a real family and the life of the film’s heroes. The film tells about the diseases of family members, the same diseases were affected by the prototypes of screen heroes. However, according to the journalist, such information in the film makes one wonder about the artistry of the film.

“Art cannot justify all the disgust that people commit. You can’t cover up shamelessness with art, ”the journalist concluded.

• The film "Magnus" was banned for seven years rus.delfi.ee , 05/12/2008.
• “Art cannot cover up all the disgust that people commit,” says Estonian journalist Kalle Muuli about the ban on the distribution of the film “Magnus” (inaccessible link) , 05/15/2008