Lawmakers promise to review plan to dub Russian dialogue in films

Some politicians have acknowledged that a proposed requirement to dub or voice over all television content not in an official European Union language was a mistake, LSM reported. The plan has drawn objections from the Latvian Association of Broadcasters, Latvia’s public media organisation LSM and representatives of the Association of Film Producers.

The disputed amendments to Latvia’s Electronic Mass Media Law have passed two readings, and the Saeima could vote on them in their final reading in September.

The proposed rules would require all television content not in an official language of an EU member state to be dubbed or voiced over in Latvian. This would mean that even individual phrases spoken in Russian in a film would have to be revoiced in Latvian.

The proposal would affect not only classic films but also recent works. Industry representatives say the amendments would weaken Latvia-based media outlets, restrict the availability of Latvian films on television and distort filmmakers’ creative intentions.

Filmmaker Viesturs Kairišs said the requirement would be a serious artistic blow to his films, including Melānijas hronika, Piļsāta pi ūpis, Janvāris and Uļ, which is partly in Russian.

“The choice of Russian in this case is not my wish,” Kairišs said. He added that he had deliberately made the first words in Uļ Latvian for patriotic reasons.

Kairišs said he uses Latvian wherever possible, but the main character in Uļ comes from an Old Believer village where everyone speaks Russian. He said the language reflects the period portrayed in the films, when Russian was imposed on the Latvian people and was objectively spoken in Latvia.

A New Unity lawmaker has acknowledged that a mistake was made and said some members of parliament have changed their views. The amendments were drafted by the National Alliance, whose representatives said they had not considered films when preparing the proposal.