The director was not allowed to survive this finest hour.
When Vladimir Menshov was informed that his painting “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears” received an Oscar, he did not believe it. The news came on April 1, so the director thought it was a joke. However, the information turned out to be true. Only no one gave Menshov the chance to receive the coveted statuette.
Vladimir Valentinovich was not present at the award ceremony: the director was not allowed to travel abroad. Therefore, the “Oscar” for him was received by a person nominated by the USSR authorities, namely the cultural attache Anatoly Dyuzhev.
Menshov was never allowed to attend the world premieres of his paintings. The reason for this was the denunciations of the director from his colleagues in the film shop. They described rather primitive “sins”, such as how he “delighted in foreign shops.” This was enough to make Menshov banned from traveling abroad. The situation with not receiving an Oscar at the ceremony did not let the master go all his life.
“This incident remains a typical example of the delirium to which the system has brought itself,” — said the director in an interview with the publication RG.
