XXXII documentary film festival “Russia” has opened in Yekaterinburg
One of the oldest and most reputable film forums in the country needs no introduction, so just the numbers for this year: out of 427 applications for the competition program, 62 films were selected, shot by authors from six countries. The screenings will take place at four venues in Yekaterinburg and in nine cities in the region.
For a decade, the opening ceremony of the festival has been worked out to the smallest detail, and only the ubiquitous pandemic makes its own adjustments: this year, the statuettes for the winners – the muse of cinema on the wheel of history – are not passed from hand to hand by the audience. But on the other hand, for the second year in a row, the festival’s website hosts an online broadcast of the entire competition program. At the same time, many people still want to see films in the familiar cinema hall, especially since admission to all events, according to the invariable tradition of “Russia”, is free.
– Today I looked into the hall and saw such good, open faces. And I realized that everything was not in vain – our sleepless nights, hassle, long months of preparation, – instead of an official greeting, the permanent director of the festival Georgy Negashev said. – For more than thirty years, we already recognize many spectators by sight, but at the same time we notice that from year to year in the hall there are more and more unfamiliar, new, young faces. A generational change takes place at the festival. Documentary films are of interest to a wide variety of people.
The same unofficial tone was supported by the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Sverdlovsk Region, Yulia Prytkova, recalling her student days and the first Sverdlovsk festivals, when the auditoriums of faculties were empty, because it was considered worse to “skip” “Russia” than to miss lectures and seminars.
It is gratifying that there are a lot of new young names this year and participants: students from the Irkutsk and Rostov branches of the VGIK named after S.A. presented their programs. Gerasimov, there are many contenders for the prize “For the best debut”. But no one will be given discounts, Andrei Konchalovsky himself participates in the program with the film “The Cheerful Man”, as well as films by Sergei Debizhev, Andrei Osipov, Yevgeny Golynkin, Valery Timoshchenko, Irina Vasilyeva, Elena Dubkova and Marina Chuvaylova and other filmmakers …
– The Yekaterinburg festival “Russia” today is perhaps the only documentary film festival that reflects the entire palette of national documentary filmmaking, approved by film director and producer Ivan Tverdovsky. – Different genres, trends and films are always presented here. The same cannot be said about many other festivals, largely limiting festivals, or, if you prefer, the policy of the festival.
Indeed, the films of the festival program reveal the most diverse aspects of human life. The heroes of today are saving prisoners of war, exploring mysterious caves, opening cinemas in the Arctic, wading through thorns to sports records, becoming volunteers, building their Noah’s arks and chasing the Yeti. Several films are dedicated to the feat of doctors who are fighting the pandemic. Other films introduce the viewer to unique natural objects: the Shulgan-Tash cave in Bashkiria, the Ural river Chusovaya, the Arctic, where the cultural and ethnographic roads of a group of Russians live, the Baikal coast, along the dead-end branch of the old railway. The special program “Eternal Values” includes, according to the organizers, “films of spiritual comprehension”, and the information program “Milestones in History” – unique documents from the collection of the Russian State Archive of Photo Documents.
The program of off-screen events is also varied: obligatory discussions, round tables, opportunities for filming in extreme conditions and how to get grant funds for filming a film. The “Russia” festival will end on October 20.