Next issue ice show Channel One was dedicated to world cinema. One of the brightest couples of the project - Tatyana Navka and Andrei Burkovsky - took to the ice in costumes of Jewish prisoners of a concentration camp during the Second World War. Striped robes, yellow six-pointed stars on the chest. We danced to the song Beautiful That Way from the famous Italian film “Life is Beautiful.” We skated, all the jury members gave the highest scores. And then the Internet began to growl.
“I hope Averbukh is smart enough to never bring this number to Israel,” “We are in a concentration camp. We are Jews. We're having fun. Life is beautiful”, “This is an entertaining number staged for Russian TV by the famous figure skater Ilya Averbukh. We hope he is ashamed,” “Channel One is really bad with brains.”
Judging by the responses, some viewers were outraged by the fun that was portrayed most of numbers "Jews in a concentration camp".
Be sure to check it out! One of my favorite numbers! Based on one of my favorite films, “Life is Beautiful”! Show this film to your children, be sure to #ice age @tatiana_navka @aburkovskiy PS: Our children should know and remember that terrible time, which I hope, God willing, they will never know!
English-language messages appeared almost immediately. “U should to apologize! My whole family was murdered in babi yar what a sick person are u?” (“You must apologize! My whole family died at Babi Yar, what kind of sick person are you?!”) wrote someone ornaazarya on Tatyana Navka’s Instagram.
Moreover, some angry messages were addressed to Western audiences from “this side.” “Shameful! From Russia” (“Shame! From Russia!”) – for example, a user with the nickname Ukraine-english-news writes on Twitter.
Meanwhile, it was enough to carefully watch this episode of “Ice Age” to understand what was happening. Especially for those who have not watched the film “Life is Beautiful,” the program explained it general idea. The heroes of this picture live despite the circumstances: even when they find themselves in a concentration camp, they are full of life in the name of saving a child. This is the idea that the skaters tried to convey to the public. By the way, director Karen Shakhnazarov, who was present at the recording of the show as a guest member of the jury, said that Burkovsky and Navka managed to convey the essence of the film. This was also noted by many Internet users: “They make films, paint pictures, and stage plays on the themes of the Holocaust. Why can’t this topic be understood in this way?” - tweets @semak515.
“Don’t listen to critics and insults, this is the biomass that is creaking with its rusty fingers, which is now killing in Donbass and burning in Odessa. And the liberals who joined them, always whining and stinking “how bad everything is here,” Navka @spiashchiiagent harshly summed up on Instagram.
This is not just a show. This is a theater. And it is imperative to raise such topics,” Tatyana Navka commented on the situation to KP. - They need to remember! And if young people look and wonder what it is, and then find out about the Holocaust, concentration camps and the film “Dolce Vita” - then we have hit the mark.
“I don’t really understand this reaction,” Andrei Burkovsky admitted to us. - But I understand that people are all different and everyone has their own opinion. But the negative buzz around our performance is not justified.
The pair's coach Ilya Averbukh said abruptly:
It's not serious. There's nothing even to discuss!
Tatyana Navka, an Olympic champion in figure skating and the wife of Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, performed together with actor Andrei Burkovsky on the Ice Age show on Channel One on Saturday evening. The couple performed Roberto Benigni’s Oscar-winning film “Life is Beautiful” to the song “Beautiful That Way” by Israeli singer Ahinoam Nini (Noah), which was included in the film’s soundtrack.
Dressed in striped pajamas with yellow stars of David, the “parents”, who according to the authors’ idea ended up in a concentration camp, are trying to convince the “child” that everything that is happening around is a game. During the performance, the skaters pretended to shoot at each other. As the Daily Mail notes, "Their beaming smiles are typical of figure skating, but did not fit well with the monstrous theme of the issue. In turn, the authors explained that the smiles, antics and what seemed to others to be an inappropriate joyful atmosphere were part of the script, repeating the plot of the film “Life is Beautiful.”
After the performance, Navka posted a collage of photos on her Instagram with the caption: “Be sure to look! One of my favorite numbers! Based on one of my favorite movies, Life is Beautiful! Show this film to your children, definitely. PS: Our children should know and remember that terrible time, which I hope, God willing, they will never know!”
A photo posted by Tatiana Navka (@tatiana_navka) on Nov 26, 2016 at 11:22am PST
However, not everyone understood and appreciated the allusions. Immediately after New York Magazine and Daily Beast author Yashar Ali retweeted the recording of the speech, a hurricane of criticism hit Navka and Burkovsky. Opinions on social networks were divided: from “I just can’t believe such insensitivity and tactlessness” to calls for Putin to force Navka to make a public apology.
Angry tweets also poured into the official account of the Russian embassy in London. Users suggested sending Navka and Burkovsky to a place “where they give out the same pajamas for free,” and also advised the artists to “starve for several months and work in the cold to get into character.”
“What are they going to convey through the choreography next, pogroms?” - Social media users are outraged.
This might be offensive if they hadn't taken such great care to recreate all the wonderful ice dancing going on at Aushwitz at the time. https://t.co/Nz0iDHqili
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) November 27, 2016
The Guardian notes that the performance was well received by the audience, adding that “the usually glamorous Navka even appeared in public without makeup for the sake of the act.” The Jerusalem Post described the performance as "chilling," noting that in April the Russian version of Dancing with the Stars also featured a similar moment when actor Alexander Petrov, dressed in a Nazi uniform, pretended to be searched to find a young Jewish woman hiding behind a piano. ).
Navka herself in interview radio " Komsomolskaya Pravda"Called the reaction of the world media strange. “Honestly, I don’t understand what exactly disappointed people. In my opinion, it is good that this topic is touched upon. Look how many people watched the movie just last night, and I got huge amount calls, SMS, and people respond with gratitude and positive feedback that thank you that we touched on this topic, that we remind you of that terrible time. It’s surprising what the foreign press picked up. “I’m more than sure that if this number was performed by any other skater on our show, then this number would pass by, no one would ever pay attention to it,” she said.
On the contrary, we wanted to show with our number, to somehow touch human qualities, sincere, and only from good intentions.”
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, in response to criticism of his wife Tatyana Navka, said that he was “proud of his wife.”
Her dance partner Andrei Burkovsky also said that he did not understand the sharply negative reaction to their performance. “I understand that people are all different and everyone has their own opinion. But the negative buzz around our performance is unjustified,” he said, adding that his brother from Israel called him and said that the number was wonderful. According to Burkovsky, the issue tells the story of how a child is not allowed to see all the horrors of war. As the actor emphasized, they did not want to offend anyone.
Couple's coach, show producer and author of the idea for the show Ilya Averbukh said, that he did “a lot of numbers on military and Jewish themes, absolutely different characters" “In the previous program we had a stunning number by Ekaterina Barnabas - an Armenian lullaby, also about tragic events. But no one paid attention, apparently because Tatyana Navka did not perform it. The theme of this program is world cinema. Each pair illustrated one or another film. A story when parents try to protect their child, paint a different world for him, makes him feel the tragedy even more, it becomes even more painful. And we talk about it.
I get the feeling that people didn’t watch either the act or the film. We saw photos of smiling people in robes and made some ridiculous conclusions - from bad taste, illiteracy, lack of education.
Perhaps these are the only words that come to mind when you receive this kind of reaction,” he said.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, spoke about publications in foreign media in an even harsher tone. “They didn’t like the number! The image of the prisoners of Auschwitz, you see, is not embodied on ice as it should be. Defenders of tolerance? Nothing of the kind! Hypocrites and liars. Moreover, they are cowardly hypocrites and liars fulfilling a political order,”
Tatiana Navka and Andrei Burkovsky provoked loud scandal number “Beautiful That Way” to music from the film “Life is Beautiful”.
Latest issue The Ice Age program ended in a scandal due to the number “Beautiful That Way” performed by Andrei Burkovsky.
The theme of the program was world cinema, and Navka and Burkovsky skated a number based on the film “Life is Beautiful.” Let us remind you that in the plot of the film, parents who ended up in a concentration camp are trying to convince the child that everything that is happening is not real, but just a game, so they smile, clownish a little and in every possible way create an atmosphere of ease and fun.
Tatiana Navka and Andrey Burkovsky - Beautiful That Way. Ice age
The number received mixed reactions from viewers. Internet users, who clearly had not watched the film and did not want to understand the situation, responded very harshly to Navka and Burkovsky.
Even Western publications noticed the scandal. The English newspaper Daily Mail posted reviews from popular bloggers sharply condemning the show, and even a call that the Russian president should force the show's creators to apologize for "making a mockery of the Holocaust."
The American publication The Huffington Post and the Israeli Haaretz did not stand aside either.
Coach Ilya Averbukh spoke in defense of Tatiana Navka and Andrei Burkovsky, who, by the way, staged this number.
“I did a lot of numbers on military and Jewish themes, with completely different characters. In the previous program we had a stunning number by Ekaterina Barnabas - an Armenian lullaby, also about tragic events. But no one paid attention, apparently because Tatyana Navka did not perform it And this is the whole answer,” said Averbukh.
Ilya shamed the Daily Mail for the fact that a serious, respected publication published absolutely unverified information. He briefly explained the theme of the program and retold the meaning of the film “Life is Beautiful,” which Navka and Burkovsky presented on ice.
“I have the feeling that people didn’t watch either the performance or the film. They saw photos of smiling people in robes and made some ridiculous conclusions - from bad taste, illiteracy, lack of education. Perhaps, these are the only words that come to mind when you receive something like this reaction. All this hype is an indicator of modern madness. I would call it “delirium tremens” and insanity,” Averbukh said. Tatyana Navka herself was delighted with the rental. "Be sure to watch! One of my favorite numbers! Based on one of my favorite films, “Life is Beautiful”! Show this film to your children, be sure to. Our children should know and remember that terrible time, which I hope, God willing, they will never they'll find out!" – the skater wrote on social networks.
