Translated material
And there will be sunshine and there will be cinema
Sochi will host the Kinotavr festival for the 19th time
This year Kinotavr will take place from June 7 to 15. So far, only part of the competition program is known - six films out of fifteen. The festival will open with the film “Live and Remember” by Alexander Proshkin, which, however, will not prevent the film from participating in the main competition. This is a film adaptation of the famous story by Valentin Rasputin. The plot is based on the tragic story of a deserter who fled from the front of the Great Patriotic War, reached his native village, but did not dare to open up to his neighbors or even his parents. The only person who knows about his return is his wife. Starring Daria Moroz and Mikhail Evlanov, as well as Sergei Makovetsky, Anna Mikhalkova, Evgenia Glushenko...It is already known that Kirill Serebrennikov’s new film “St. George’s Day,” based on a script by Yuri Arabov and starring Ksenia Rappoport, will also take part in the competition. This is a strange, at the same time realistic and mystical story about a famous singer who came to the city of her youth to show her son her small homeland, and is involved in events that dramatically change her life...
The rest of the films already entered into the competition are debuts, although their authors are not always young and not necessarily new to cinema. Thus, the film “Four Ages of Love” was shot by the famous cameraman Sergei Mokritsky, who this time acted as a director. These are four short stories based on a conventional paraphrase of biblical stories - about Adam and Eve, about Sarah and Abraham, about the prodigal son, but placed in absolutely modern circumstances... Among the actors are Liya Akhedzhakova, Igor Yasulovich, Alexey Serebryakov, Elena Morozova . Like “St. George’s Day,” the film is presented by the company “New People,” which unexpectedly entered into competition with the STV company in terms of the number of films participating in the competition.
This time Sergei Selyanov will present to the public two new feature film directorial debuts. Both directors, however, have already made their mark quite clearly in documentaries and short films. Igor Voloshin’s film “Nirvana” was shown in one of the programs of the Berlin Film Festival, after which it received flattering reviews from critics. This is a love story of three young people, shot in post-punk style, with costumes and makeup, containing all the ingredients of a modern melodrama: drugs, music, jealousy, death. One of the main roles is played by Maria Shatalova, who played in “Rusalka”, as well as Olga Sutulova, Arthur Smolyaninov and again Mikhail Evlanov in a cameo but striking role.
The second film of the STV company is “Schultes” by Bakur Bakuradze, who, in collaboration with Dmitry Mamulia, directed the semi-documentary film “Moscow” about guest workers. Bakuradze’s first full-length film retains the style of a documentary drama, starring either previously unknown actors or non-professionals. This is the story of an athlete who lost his memory after an injury and turns to fraud in a big city.
And finally, the sixth film is “New Earth” by Alexander Melnik, also the first directorial work of the already honored cinematographer. Everything is different here - a big budget, a tough male story, a dystopia, the action takes place in the near future, when, as a result of the widespread abolition of the death penalty, all prisons are overflowing with murderers, and some of them, as an experiment, are sent to a desert island, where they must or somehow... either survive or kill each other. Starring Konstantin Lavronenko, Marat Basharov, Sergei Zhigunov and guest star Tommy "Kid" Lister (the one who played the president in The Fifth Element).
Information that appeared in the press about the participation of Alexei Uchitel’s film “Prisoner” (an adaptation of Vladimir Makanin’s story “Prisoner of the Caucasus”) in the competition has not yet received official confirmation. Despite the fact that according to the rules, participation in a domestic film festival does not interfere with the inclusion of international festivals in the competition, in practice the authors always try to give the right of first opening to famous world brands. The Moscow International Film Festival is not one of them, but its interests must also be taken into account, and producers and directors have the right to choose between Moscow and Sochi, especially since this year the dates of the two screenings almost coincide.
Since “Kinotavr” is the main domestic show of everything shot during the year, the films participating in the competition are deliberately diverse, multi-genre and represent the most different ways of existing of modern cinema. This year, more than 60 applications have already been submitted to the competition, which indicates that our film industry is working intensively. And the main feature of its current stage has been the increase in the number of debuts. It is in this area, apparently, that the main discoveries and surprises of the current Kinotavr will take place.
The remaining films in the competition will be announced on May 12, at the traditional press conference. Then other details will become known. In the meantime, we know the name of the chairman of the jury (Pavel Chukhrai), about the appearance of a new prize - for cinematography, about the fact that the festival will widely celebrate the centenary of Russian cinema and that, in connection with this, there will be more celebrities and stars there than usual.
It is also known that the festival’s budget is increasing due to the constant rise in prices, which on the eve of the Olympic Games have already gone off scale, so that now government support, unchanged from previous times, amounts to approximately 10% of total costs. However, the festival's directors, Igor Tolstunov and Alexander Rodnyansky, do not yet intend to give up their honorable, albeit ruinous, role. This is the fourth time they are holding this forum and are not going to sell it or move it to another - less pretentious - place.
In other news: as before, during Kinotavr, in addition to the big competition, there is also a short film competition, but this year there will be no documentary screening. But the “Cinema on the Square” program is still in favor, and with the participation of the festival sponsor Beeline, an SMS voting for the best film will be organized this year. On the square in front of the Sochi Winter Theater, Russian films that have already been released and have been particularly successful among viewers will be shown.
But the closing film will not be Russian. Guests of Kinotavr will be the first in Russia to see Martin Scorsese's concert film about the Rolling Stones, Let There Be Light, which opened the Berlin Festival this year.