By Vestnik Kavkaza
At the end of June, Moscow will host the traditional 35th Moscow International Film Festival. 14 films will compete in the main program. There are three Russian movies: “The Role” by Konstantin Lopushansky, “Slide” by Anton Rozerberg and “Judas” by Andrey Bogatyrev.
The main competition program also includes: Matterhorn (the Netherlands), Traffic Department (Poland), Spaghetti Story (Italy), Los Chicos del Puerto (Spain), Particle (Turkey), Rosie (Switzerland), The Ravine of Goodbye (Japan), Disorder (Georgia), Mamorash (Serbia, Germany, France, Hungary) and Lebanon Emotion (Korea).
The festival will begin with World War Z. Brad Pitt and director Mark Forster will present the movie to the Russian audience.
According to the program director of the film festival Kirill Razlogov, there are several differences from the last festival: “This year we rejected the competition of prospects. It is our experiment. Today young directors begin with short-films, so we pay great attention to the short-film program. We will have the short-film competition; we will have the out-of-competition short-film program; we even wanted to organize a special run of short-films in Moscow cinemas. I think we will do it next year,” Kirill Razlogov noted.
The program director of the festival also emphasized extension of geography: “At request of the Moscow authorities, we are developing the program for city cinemas. This program will include several sections: the best films of Mosfilm; the best films of Gorky Studio; prize-winners of the Moscow Film Festival; and the short-film program. As for the main program, it will be held traditionally in “Oktyabr” Theatre; the cinema fan platform has already been established there.”
Grigory Libergal, the vice-president of Non-Fiction Film and Television Guild, the president of the Non-Fiction Film Club commented on the program of MIFF: “Diederik Ebbinge, the director from the Netherlands, comes with “Matterhorn.” Traffic Department is one of the most box-office films in Poland. Its director Wojtek Smarzowski is thought to be one of the most promising Polish directors. Konstantin Lopushansky’s film “The Role.” The youth ironic comedy Spaghetti Story by Ciro de Caro from Italy. Tatsushi Ômori’s film “The Ravine of Goodbye.” Alberto Morais, the Spanish director, presents the film “Los Chicos del Puerto.” Alberto Morais got the grand prize of MIFF two years ago for his “Waves.” He loves our festival and so brings a new movie which is very interesting. Swiss director Marsel Gisler presents “Rosie.” “Particle” from Turkey. I believe Archil Kavtaradze’s movie “Disorder” is very sharp and interesting. And there is also the debutant film by a man who is not well-known among cinema workers, but is very well-known in the circle of advertisement and musical video directors, Anton Rozenberg – “Slide”.”
Answering Vestnik Kavkaza’s questions on the movies from Georgia and Turkey, Kirill Razlogov nored that “the Georgian film is very tough.” “We called in it Disorder. It is about prison and abuses in a Georgian prison; the genre is called “gore.” But the artistic solutions of shifting to the cartoon esthetics are very interesting. As for the Turkish film, it is a traditional movie, neo-realistic, very humane – a woman’s fate in modern Turkey and difficulties of her life. The camera should follow a common human which life has no adventures or bright events. The main character is a common woman with routine problems.”
Kirill Razlogov also commented on Moscow Business Square where participation of many people from the CIS, including the South Caucasus, is expected. “There will be many guests and projects from this region. Moscow Business Square is oriented abroad, but it is also oriented at the CIS countries. The interest to this region, to our cinema is very big because together with Kazakhstan we are one of a few financial sources for movies; while joint film projects become more and more numerous.”
