Gerard Depardieu to make movie on Chechnya
February 25, 2013, 2:53 pm

French actor Gerard Depardieu. [Getty Images]

“I want to film a movie here to show that one can make a movie in Grozny, a big movie,” Depardieu said on his trip to Grozny.

“I can’t disclose any details about the movie, but I know we will come back here, and it’s only the beginning.”

The actor visited Grozny at the invitation of the republic’s President Ramzan Kadyrov.

Depardieu received a warm welcome in the republic and Kadyrov met him in person at the airport.

He was made an honorary citizen of Chechnya and presented with the key to a five-bedroom flat in the Chechen capital.

“I have just handed to Gerard Depardieu the documents for a five-room apartment and a certificate of honorary citizenship of the Chechen Republic,” Kadyrov wrote on his page on the Instagram photo website.

Speaking at the reception in Grozny, the Cyrano de Bergerac star said: “I very much like to see these people with this pride.  I heard, like everybody, about the Chechen temperament, but I had never been to this country, to this state.”

Mr Depardieu is now registered as living at No 1, Democracy Street in Saransk, in the region of Mordovia.

“Glory to Russia; glory to Mordovia! This region doesn’t have oil or gas but has rich people who make their wishes come true in life,” the actor was quoted in media reports, after the ceremony on Saturday.

The actor had earlier declined an offer to become Mordovia Republic’s Minister of Culture.

Depardieu was granted Russian citizenship by Russian President Vladimir Putin on January 6 and also became Mordovia’s envoy to FIFA for the soccer World Cup in 2018.

Daria Chernyshova