Translated material
The tractor went
The festival "Ecology of the Soul" has ended in Riga
The Baltic premiere of Sergei Solovyov's film "Anna Karenina" ended the first film forum "Ecology of the Soul" in Riga, which opened a week before with the presentation of "Burnt by the Sun 2" by Nikita Mikhalkov. Between a preliminary acquaintance with the sweeping war epic of the current head of the Union of Cinematographers and a meeting with the lyrical version of Tolstoy’s novel proposed by the former head of this union, a program in two parts fit in.The first grew out of the traditional Riga Russian film festival and was a non-competitive parade of current new products, which, according to the plan of general producer Vasily Melnikov, demonstrated the best of what our main film festivals presented from winter to summer on a first-come, first-served basis.
The "Spirit of Fire" delegated the mentioned "Anna Karenina" and the second "Assa"; "Kinotavr" - "Top", "Oxygen", "Kitty", "Crazy Help" and "A Tale of Darkness"; Moscow International - "The Tsar", "Petya on the Road to the Kingdom of Heaven" and "Ward No. 6"; "Window to Europe" - "One and a half rooms, or a Sentimental journey to the Motherland." They were joined by “The Man Who Knew Everything” by Vladimir Mirzoev and “The Tatar Princess” by Irina Kvirikadze (also shown, albeit without much resonance, in different MIFF programs), but not as semi-random trailer cars, but in a meaningful way
The intellectual thriller of theater director Vladimir Mirzoev is interesting in light of the increasingly active intervention of the theater in the affairs of Russian cinema - intervention both personal (Kirill Serebrennikov, Ivan Vyrypaev, Vasily Sigarev) and linguistic ("Kitty", composed by Grigory of Constantinople from four monologues). In addition, “Man” is noteworthy as a turning point in the personal directorial path of Mirzoev, who on stage values a sharply individual tone and there puts the stamp of exclusive authorship on any of his products - here he decided to master the commercial canon and play the mainstream game.
The costume melodrama by Irina Kvirikadze (among the producers of which, by the way, is another theater person, the artist Pavel Kaplevich) successfully rhymed with “Sentimental Journey”: if Andrei Khrzhanovsky made an assumption about how the never-fulfilled return of Joseph could have turned out Brodsky to St. Petersburg, then Kvirikadze came up with a version of the Parisian novel by Anna Akhmatova and Amedeo Modigliani - a novel that either took place in reality, or was fantasized by the Silver Age. In addition to the commonality of the genre, there is a similarity of themes and main characters (Akhmatova also appears in “Sentimental Journey”, however, only occasionally performed by Svetlana Kryuchkova, while in “Princess” her role is the main one and is divided between Hanna Shigula and Dana Agisheva ).
For Riga, as one of the most Russified Baltic cities, which also recently elected a Russian mayor, the festival of new Russian films is, of course, not a meeting with the fruits of an unknown exotic culture in the area of strengthening friendship between peoples, but an almost homely event. This is not a line from a government program, but a private initiative of the organizers, and the seventh serial number is not a consequence of their perseverance, but a sign that the idea has found a response and is in demand. But in addition to internal circumstances (for example, sincere interest), there are also external circumstances (for example, purchasing power). The Latvian economic situation, as is known, leaves much to be desired. Newspapers are discussing the next European financial tranche, the windows of Jurmala cafes report that the premises are ready for sale, and the minibus driver, in response to the outstretched 5 lats bill, grins: “Wow, what big money people still have left.” 5 lats is more than 350 rubles at the local exchange rate. And tickets to the Parex Plaza multiplex reached 8 lats - this is serious by Moscow standards.
In general, it cannot be said that the halls where the shows were held were crowded with the pressure of those wishing to join in and the audience was hanging from the chandeliers. This did not happen, and for some guests this circumstance was probably offensive, but for Nikita Mikhalkov it was almost certainly offensive. If the audience, as he was surprised to learn, did not go to the presentation of “Burnt 2”, but to their premiere, then how can one explain the fact that the only screening in Riga attracted only two-thirds of the 600-seat hall? In theory, the tickets should have been snapped up like hot cakes (or buns, if we are closer to the local reality), but here, instead of the obvious sold-out splendor, you get bald spots in the hall. Unpleasant.
Nikolai Khomeriki and his producer Roman Borisevich had fewer reasons for such frustration: about fifty curious people came to their “Tale of Darkness”, but the film was not made a priori for everyone - so only two dozen copies are released on Russian screens. Pavel Lungin may look like a king: his “Tsar” was shown in the same main hall as “Burnt 2,” but it was packed. And the best hall went to Andrei Khrzhanovsky and his fantasy about Brodsky - the best not in terms of the number of goals, but in terms of the quality of the silence that rang while watching.
The second part of the program was compiled by film expert Sergei Zemlyanukhin and consisted of an international competition of fiction, documentary and animated short films, as well as several retrospectives and presentations of unfinished projects, interconnected by the current idea of the almanac. After all, this increasingly tempting form for directors and producers allows them to work in short films and count not only on local festival success, but also on commercial profit.
Three dozen films were shown in the competition, they were judged by three: director Andrei Zvyagintsev as chairman of the jury, his Latvian colleague Juris Poškus and Lithuanian critic Rasa Paukštėtė. Everyone voted "High Feelings" by Leonid Plyaskin as the best feature film - a story with a pubescent love triangle in the plot and a dozen cliches of a "school film" in the anamnesis, but made quite deftly and charmingly. “Chief”, which participated in the same competition and was previously awarded at the “Kinotavr”, looked preferable, but the jury apparently decided that it would be wiser not to turn the head of VGIK student Yuri Bykov once again, but to inspire future exploits of the St. Petersburg student Konstantin Lopushansky. It is possible that it was guided by the same reasons when, between the two most worthy animated films - "The Law of Life" by Rishat Gilmetdinov based on Jack London and "Cantata "Salvation" by Maria Litvinova based on Daniil Kharms - they chose the second one. Here everything was the other way around: St. Petersburg Konstantin Bronzit’s student just won the “Silver Boat” at the “Window to Europe”, so let the “Ecology of the Soul” award go to Litvinova, especially since her film is also good. Among documentaries, the first was Alena Surzhikova with “Generation O” - there. again a love triangle, and the age of the heroes is the same as in “High Emotions,” but the story is real, Tallinn, and a child already appears in it, the young mother - herself two inches old in every sense - has already assigned a future: “She will go to the factory as a packer, like me.” Considering that the jury’s special prize was given to Dovile Sharutyte for the fictional “Bad Dream,” the number of ladies awarded at the film forum was impressive and provoked speculation about the gender future of, if not world cinema, then at least Russian-Baltic cinema. (Ecology of the Soul has not yet reached distant countries, leaving this for the future). The situation was somewhat corrected by another young St. Petersburg director Alexander Gorelik with his “The Long Road Home,” which was awarded the Grand Prix. This is an extremely laconic (one long general shot, into which several short close-ups and medium ones are embedded) documentary chronicle of the persistent attempt of several men to start a broken-down tractor, which gradually but steadily condenses into a cast of Russian life with all its guts and metaphysics.
As a result, the tractor started moving, but how long it will last is unknown. The Riga Film Forum "Ecology of the Soul" started up the first time, and I would like it to have enough spark and gasoline for a long time. This may not sound too patriotic, but the fact that it is not entirely domestically assembled is more encouraging than alarming.