Rio manager Rubinstein: Whoops!

THE RIO Cinema has lost £7,000 of EU funding this year because it screened less than the requisite 30 per cent of films from countries approved by the Europa Cinemas fund.

Rio manager Charles Rubinstein told the Dalston picture house’s annual general meeting that it was not difficult to monitor the nationality of films shown. But under questioning he said: “We failed to notice that Turkey had fallen off the list.”

The number of films from Turkey shown by the Rio therefore kept the total number of screenings of “European” movies just below the fund’s stipulated minimum. The Rio’s Turkish screenings were no longer counting: films from other fund-approved countries should have been shown.

The fund will pay the Rio €11,905 (£10,039) rather than the €20,240 (£17,072) it received for 2009. The difference is a little more than the profit Rubinstein announced on the Rio’s newly licensed bar.

Rio-goers may recall the Europa Cinemas commercial, with its puzzling but unexplained insistence on listing cities such as Tashkent, Ramallah and Tunis.

David Altheer 131210

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