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Program COMPETITIVE PROGRAM Nomination «Portrait»
Director of photography: Artyom Anisimov. Production Manager: Anna Kovalyova Production: Object-Media and «Actual Film» Studio NIKITA POZDEYEV — is a young scientist. In his S. Petersburg's flat he decodes human genomes. One of the versions, the human is only tank for keeping one of the special kind of DNA. May be is the only aim, we exist. May be we was made by acid. And love, love means nothing. It's for our joins. Ones the mind will be the winner. «Roach trip», Canada, 45 min, 2003 Director Eric «ROACH» Denis Producer Mila Aung-Thwin Cinematography: Eric «ROACH» Denis, Claude «SMASH» Tassé Jr. Roachtrip starts by waving the black flag in the house of commons and ends wandering lost in the desert. In between is a hardcore odyssey down Canada's invisible punk highway spiraling out of the filthy city in search of something pure and clean but ending up back in the thick of the shit because you can't run forever. You can try to escape the drugs, the cops, the pollution but eventually it catches back up with you. Roach and Smash, two inseperable street buddies from Montreal. Ping-pong across the country to the dismay of authority figures all over. The first time we met Roach and Smash was in 2002's documentary hit S.P.I.T.: squeegee punks in traffic , which chronicled the zero-tolerance war against squeegee kids. Now these 2 co-conspirators are set loose with the roachcam and the loose mandate of filming the annual punk migration across Canada to the Okanagan valley. Camping, fishing, and fruit-picking through summer, these two punks are never quite able to leave the city behind. Just beyond the paradise of the Okanagan lies the lure of the Vancouver, North America's heroin capital. The film is an autobiographical coming-of-age chronicle told in an intimate point-of-view style. «It's difficult to become a god», Russia, 30 min, 2003 Director Sergey Bosenko Producer Natalia Zheltukhina Script Irina Semashko, Sergey Bosenko Production Risk Film and Video studio Incredible work for short-lived triumph, exhausting coaching from early in the morning until late at night, constant change of ups and downs these are the components of everyday life of both a made gymnastic champion Alexey Nemov and a young novice gymnast Jury Ryazanov. Nomination «Problem»
Director: Scriptwriter: Sergey Vinokurov Cinematography: Alexander Gusev Production studio: Saint-Petersbourg documentary films studio Saint-Petersburg communal flat — an anachronism of the 21st century. A communal flats separation agent comes to the tenants in order to discuss possible move variants. Entering one of the rooms he finds himself at a wedding. Then he passes into an artist s room; then converses with veterans. But despite the cramped conditions and certain discomfort, all of them refuse to move. «¹ 17», Israel, 76 min, 2003 Director: David Ofek Cinematographer and co-director: Ron Rotem Producers: Edna and Elinor Kowarsky Production: Eden Productions Ltd. In June 2002, a bus on its way to Tiberius from Tel Aviv, was bombed. 17 people were killed, 16 were identified. No. 17 wasn't. He was buried a few weeks later — anonymous. The police stopped searching, believing that he must have been a foreign worker. This is where the filmmakers step in, documenting in real time over a period of six months the search for the identity of a man no one claimed missing. The film takes the form of a detective investigation, but also pursues the stories of several people who were affected directly or indirectly, by this bombing, creating a tragic-comic portrait of a society living under the shadow of death. When it seems that the investigation has reached a dead end a vague lead appears… «Welcome to Holland», Netherlands, 100 min, 2003 Director: Sarah Vos Research & Screenplay: Hanneke Bouwsema Camera: Sander Snoep Production: Mariska Schneider In this documentary a Dutch film crew had the unique opportunity to stay for two months within a, for outsiders totally closed facility for underaged prospectless asylum seekers. This experimental Campus, called Campus Vught, was set up so the young asylum seekers waiting to be expelled from the Netherlands would not get bored and at the same time have the chance to take a little education home before being send back to their countries such as Sierra Leone and China. This unique documentary starts at the day the underaged asylum seekers refuse to follow their compulsory daily classes, an act that would end up in a riot with dramatical consequences. Nomination «Event»
Script, direction and research: Isaac Isitan Camera Isaac Isitan, Tolga Kutluay, Michel Desroches, Kerem Saltuk Produced by Carole Poliquin, Isaac Isitan Production ISCA Productions Inc Money is the blood of the economy and the basis of exchange. Deprived of currency, Argentinians have a revolutionary idea and create their own money. For them, it is a question of survival. This phenomenon is not limited to countries in crisis. There are over 3000 barter networks for goods and services based on local currency. In the heart of the United States, in Ithaca (NY), the film director met with a community for whom the local currency is the expression of their political will to support and develop local exchange at a time when capital so easily crosses borders. «War feels like war», UK, 59 min, 2003-04. Directed and filmed by ESTEBAN UYARRA Executive Producer ALISON ROOPER Production An In Focus / Uyarra Films Production for the BBC in association with TV2/Danmark War Feels like War is a compelling account of the brutalities of 21st Century war, told through the eyes of independent journalists. The film documents the lives of reporters and photographers who subverted military media controls to get access to the real Iraq War. As the invading armies sweep into the south of the country, some of the journalists in Kuwait decide to risk their lives to travel in their wake, hungry to see the true impact of war on civilians. The film records their frustration, fear, shock and horror as they fight their way to Bagdad. They are the lucky ones. Behind them others become part of a media circus trapped in Kuwait. Ahead of them some journalists are killed in the conflict. «Checkmate — strategy of a revolution», Germany, 60min, 2004. Director Susanne Brandtstätter Producer GunnarDedio Cinematography: …Axel Schneppat, Hans-Peter Eckardt Production Company:.LOOKS Film & TV How do you trigger off a revolution? «Checkmate» reveals how and why the United States was involved in the Romanian Revolution. When Ceausescu refused to accept the reforms sweeping Eastern Europe in 1989, the ruthless Romanian dictator rushed headlong into his own destruction. As the last of the hard-liners in the Warsaw Pact, only Ceausescu stood in the way of Europe's reunification…. Upon the backdrop of one of the most exciting episodes of history, an intricate web of international political strategies is unfolded. The Romanian revolution of 1989 seemed spontaneous. But, as this investigative documentary proves, history is not that simple. In actual fact, the Romanian revolution was a strictly managed operation, controlled from the outside. Hungary, Germany and especially the USA had big fingers in the pie. For the first time, the events in Romania are put in an international context, revealing surprising connections. It was an international chess game — a game of power with far-reaching results…both for Europe and the USA. In this highly convincing work, filmmaker Susanne Brandstätter clarifies the larger issues on the political world stage, but also proves that revolutions, no matter how well prepared, never take place without innocent victims. A painful conclusion.
Producer ,Director Peter Kerekes Cinematography: Martin Kollar Production Company: Peter Kerekes This documentary film about the Old Swimming Pool in Ko'ice, where the history came to bathe», was made over the last three summer seasons. Seen through several stories which unfolded between the years 1936 and 2002, the film captures 66 seasons at the popular swimming pool, and also the same number of years in the history of Central and Eastern Europe. The film is supported by the reminiscences of several visitors to the «Čehačko», as the pool was known, which the film crew try to reconstruct years later. The swimming pool thus acquires another metaphysical dimension — it resembles a model of the world where, with greater intensity, private stories merge with universal history (for example, the bombing of Ko'ice during the Second World War or the Russian invasion of 1968). Different generations of swimmers replaced one another over the course of the decades, only the craving for water as a place of absolute equality and also a source of security remains just as strong. «Yanks Tanks», USA/Cuba, 70 min, 2002. Producer/Director/Cinematographer: DAVID SCHENDEL Editor: JEAN KAWAHARA Associate Producer/Interviewer: JAVIER BAJANA Yanks Tanks is a first look at the phenomenon of classic American cars in Cuba. Like an exotic, endangered species, these colorful cars roam around this island paradise trapped in a 1950's time warp. As beacons of individuality in a sea of government conformity they represent freedom for those who own them. Owners who will do almost anything to keep them running. Seeing these old cars in recent films and photographs one wonders how they have maintained them after decades with no spare parts and an embargo by the United States. After repeated trips to Cuba, the Schendel brothers succeed in taking a close look into the underground world of Cuban cars, finding along the way a gallery of eccentric characters — the curators of the largest, living, automobile museum in the world «Trial», Iran, 43 min, 2004 Producer,Director Moslem Mansouri Cinematography Shahram Asadi 20 kilometers from Tehran, capital city of Iran, there lays a village called Khosro. A group of people who work in the brick kiln, making 8mm movies in a primitive, yet innovative way. In Iran, publishing a book or making a movie has to go through government censorships. The group had made movies in the villages for about ten years until 1992 that they were al arrested by the government forces and sent to prison. Months later they were released on the condition that they made no more movies. Although they were not allowed to make any more movies , they took risk of making yet another one so that we could make our movie while they were shooting.
Directors: Taras Popov, Vladimir Nazarov Producer: Galina Kuzembayeva Cinematography: Taras Popov It portrays the story of a boy in custody. This is the culmination of two documentaries, one done ten years before the other, to get a perspective of the life of inmates, revealing their inner true feelings…almost like free birds in a cage. The TV camera here is the watch dog. It perhaps cannot protect and solve the problems, but can create awareness. Are jails really reform centres? What really happens to the human soul in custodies- do they change? «The house that waits», Russia, 26 min, 2003. Director Evgeny Morozov Producer. Sergy Slobodenuk Cinematography: Evgeny Spivakov Production Company:«White Square» They call themselves simply — «THE FAMILY». And the dwelling - «THE HOUSE». Officially it's the Rehabilitation Centre for drug-addict «Orekhovo». They have their own a long time made specific language of communication.The same specificity of designations is presented at Rules of behavior in the House. They are addicts. Former addicts. People that have found in themselves strength to refuse drugs. They have the Statute, the daily time-table, system of communication among themselves and an external world. It is not so easy to get here on treatment, though here is not treatments in the medical point. Here they do not swallow a pills and do not make injections. There is a work in a base of everything, sometimes heavy, and rigid system of self-limitation. Term of stay in the House lasts 1 year. Up to the nearest highway — 1 kilometer, up to the nearest ci! ty — 30. And nevertheless here is the huge amount people wishing to arrive (opportunities of the Centre are limited. Here may be 20 — 25 persons in one time, no more) .Why? The system of rehabilitation in «Orekhovo» ï not KNOW-HOW, but statistics shows, that in the similar European Centres number refused from drugs is about 25 — 40 %, in «Orekhovo» the Centre this number is 65 — 70 %. What is the secret? «Owners of nothing», Spain , 47 min, 2003. Producer EMILIO GONZALEZ MARTI Director SEBASTIAN TALAVERA SERRANO Screenplay SEBASTIAN TALAVERA & Carlos Hermo Production DOCUMANIA Up to twenty or thirty years ago, poverty was the result of injustice, but it is no longer a cause of indignation. Being poor is a question of chance or fate. «Owners of nothing» tells some of the stories about a place that isn't on the map. A place where it's painful to look straight ahead, and where everyone has nothing. El Vacie, one of the oldest shantytown settlements in Europe. Eight hundred people and an infinite number of stories. Life there turns like the wheels of an abandoned bicycle… without going anywhere. You can pedal for years, but you'll still end up where you started. A place where the look on a child's face speaks louder than words. «Power trip», USA/Georgia, 85 min, 2003. Producer , Director , Editor Paul Devlin Co-producer, camera Valery Odikadze: In an environment of pervasive corruption, assassination, and street rioting, the story of chaotic post-Soviet transition is told through culture clash, electricity disconnections and blackouts.AES Corp., the massive American «global power company,» has purchased the privatized electricity distribution company in Tbilisi, capital of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. AES manager Piers Lewis must now train the formerly communist populace that, in this new world, customers pay for their electricity. The Georgians meanwhile, from pensioners to the Energy Minister, devise ever more clever ways to get it free. Amidst hot tempers and high drama, Lewis balances his love for the Georgian people with the hardships his company creates for them, as they struggle to build a nation from the rubble of Soviet collapse. «The transformer», Russia, 17 min, 2003. Director : Antoine Cattin, Pavel Kostomarov Production : Kinoko On the way from Moscow to Petersburg a huge electrical transformer fell off the truck. The hero has to watch over it as long as a crane doesn't come to pick it up… «Wild-goose song», Russia, 26min, 2002. Director: Sergey Litvyakov Scriptwriter: Sergey Litvyakov, Sergay Lando Cinematography: Boris Titov Production: Saint-Petersbourg documentary films studio Throughout the vast territory of Russia there is great number of little villages like Svirskoye. Cloister, hospital and village are bounded up with common worldly cares of today. The film reflects the life in remote places of Russia. Against a background of magnificent nature personal philosophies of inhabitants merge into a burden of hard being. «Bedroom radio», Scotland, 41min, 2003. Director: Doug Aubrey Producer: Marie Olesen Gary (DJ Allusion) and Yvonne (DJ Miss-Chief) are a young couple who live on a tough Paisley housing estate. Most nights they broadcast from their one bedroom flat on Gary's pirate radio station: Allusion FM. In a world where the drug dealer and moneylender rule, and where alcoholism and violence are an everyday reality, it is ironic that the only positive thing that this young couple can do for themselves is illegal. «The sound of Russia» , Germany, 59min, 2003. Director Ekaterina Eremenko Production MA.Je.DE. film production All the members of the Russian «Society of Amateur Canary Bird Singing» are men. They belong to different social groups and come from all over the country. One cold winter day, they arrive in Moscow, unified only in the burning desire to win the annual contest. They have been training their students — exclusively male too - for a whole year. Only the male bird of the species «serinus canaria canaria» is able to produce the admirable heavenly tunes. It is a rigid men's world, as most women in Russia unfortunately are completely busy with their daily chores and they have no time to care about these «real essentials of life»… «Post», Russia, 20 min, 1990 Director : Vitaly Mansky The War between Armenian SSR and Azerbijanian SSR was the first crack on the body of Soviet Union and the first war for the post-war generation . The war without right or wrong , the war where everybody is a victim .The first war in the New Age History, but so similar to the following ones, which don’t seem to end. The Crew group spent few months on blockpost , where Russians were the middle-point between the enemies. Backyards of Stalin empire (Stories about inhavitants of Stalin empire)
Since 1947 special camps for the German occupants’ children have been set up in Kaliningrad region. Each child was given a new Russian name and surname and a made-up story about his parents. The film traces their future life. «Once upon in some kingdom, in some country», Georgia, 26 min, 2003 A man living nar Tbilisi has been trying to open museum of Stalin for 26 years. He has devoted most of his life to this idea and had to sacrifice something very precious for the sake of his ideal. «Islands of silence. Doomed to die» Russia, 52 min During the Repression in Stalin’ times great number of families was banished into a northern village to plough the virgin lands. Many of them haven’t survived in the terrible lean years. The rest have found their refuge there, but all their life this people were forced to live in fear and to keep silence on the destitution they’ve suffered. Until at present the further maintaining of the village has been declared inexpedient. «Lost Squad Journal» Russia, 26 min A group of militiamen from Perm was ambushed near the place of Zhani-Vedeno during an official trip to Chechnya. We get to know the details of this tragic incident from a detective, who hasn't shared the fare of her companions only by a fluke. An unforeseen contingency prevented her from taking part in the military operation, that claimed so many lives. Screenplay: Pavel Sheremet Director: Sergey Golovezky Director of photography: Sergey Selivanov Every spring Marina Maltzeva, journalist from Perm, looks through her Chechnya journal, and again and again a tragic incident of her friends? death recurs to her… Her companions, solders of the OMON riot squad, were shoot down in an ambush on the 3 rd of March, 2002. «ARKTIKA. The Russian dream that failed», Canada, 59 min, 2004 Director: Gary Marcuse Producers: Betsy Carson, Gary Marcuse Produced by Face to Face Media Ltd A veil of secrecy that enveloped the Russian Arctic during the Soviet era has lifted. As hundreds of thousands of Russians evacuate the north, leaving behind a legacy of environmental destruction and nuclear waste, the story of the Soviet dream of conquering the Arctic-and its cost-can be told. At the height of their power the Soviet Union had a revolutionary plan for transforming the Arctic. With the help of slave labour, entire cities were built and more than two million people were moved into the North to operate mines and smelters in the cold polar regions.At the same time, tens of thousands of native hunters and herders were moved off the land and into villages and their children were sent to state run boarding schools. The Soviet campaign mirrored the American and Canadian treatment of indigenous peoples in the North American Arctic. For most of the past century, this huge social and environmental experiment in the vast Soviet Arctic was hidden away behind a wall of secrecy. On the day the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia had more native peoples, more cities, and more nuclear weapons and military bases north of the Arctic circle than the rest of the world combined. Now, with the help of an emerging human rights and environmental movement in Russia, the story is coming to light.
Director and Scriptwriter: Igor Potemkin Production studio: Public TV and Radio company «Kultura» The fates decreed that two sisters, ballet dancers, had to return to their native home by Samara as refugees. After long wanderings, through painful deprivations and indignities from state officials they suffer, they finally manage to find their way home. «Italian Marriage», Russia, 44 min, 2003 A bright and vivid love story, full of humor and subtle irony, of the famous Italian scriptwriter, painter, outstanding cultural worker Tonino Guero and Moscow «bookish lady», belle Lora. But besides them there are other main characters in the film — staggeringly beautiful views of Italy, of the places, where Tonino and Lora spend the biggest part of their life, filled with poetry and incredible romance. Due to this magic atmosphere life turns a permanent life festival. Director and scriptwriter — Aleksandr Brunkovsky Director of Photography — Genady Morozov Producer — Svetlana Rezvushkina Production company — Non-fiction Guild Studio «Lavr», Ltd. A bright and vivid love story, full of humor and subtle irony, of the famous Italian scriptwriter, painter, outstanding cultural worker Tonino Guero and Moscow «bookish lady», belle Lora. But besides them there are other main characters in the film — staggeringly beautiful views of Italy, of the places, where Tonino and Lora spend the biggest part of their life, filled with poetry and incredible romance. Due to this magic atmosphere life turns a permanent life festival. «Kazan-Moscow-Kazan», Russia, 2003 Director Aleksei Shipulin This movie is full of feminism although its author is a man. The main characters are a mother and a daughter. In the beginning of the 90-s the mother, an aviation engineer, lost her job. To survive herself and to feed her 3 year-old daughter, she became a merchant at a market. The present time. The daughter has grown up. She tries to make her pretty and still young mother return to normal life. She does it with humor and irony. To learn the way she does it, one should see the movie. This is a movie about love that helps to survive at any time of change and under any circumstances. «I want a woman», Canada, 52 ìèíóòû Directed and Written Julia Ivanova Producer Lynn Booth Produced by Make Believe Media Inc I Want a Woman follows the quest for love of four Russian immigrant men over the course of a year. Director Julia Ivanova (From Russia, For Love) gets up-close-and-personal with Dennis, Alik, Boris and Sasha, and discovers what these men really want. By revealing themselves on camera, they expose their true aspirations and their often controversial attitudes towards women and love.
Director: Andrey Khrjanovsky Scriptwriter: Yuri Arabov, Andrey Khrjanovsky Cinematography: A. Fedorov, G. Krinitsky, M. Sudarikov Production studio: DAGO Prosaic works by Joseph Brodsky combined with his verses, his amazing drawings unique photos from his archive, all of which form basic of the film. It is a series of sketches with a common plot. The action takes place in reality and the recollections of the characters on July 4, 1972, the day when the future Nobel Prize winner left his homeland forever. Various expressive means are used to realize the idea: animation, computer graphics, documentary and feature elements. «The life and time of count Visconti», UK, 120 min, 2003 Director Adam Low Producer Anthony Wall Cinematography Dewald Aukema Production BBC Luchino Visconti is one of the greatest figures in the history of Italian cinema and certainly the grandest. The Viscontis are one of the oldest of Europe's aristocratic families. They helped to build Milan cathedral. Visconti came late to film-making. He first turned his hand to the aristocratic pursuit of the breeding and training of thoroughbred racehorses, at which he was a prodigious success, winning the Milan gold cup at the age of 26. Under the guiding hand of Jean Renoir, he turned his hand to film-making in his 30s. He was one of the founders of the Italian No-Realist style, most notably La Terra Trema, a drama documentary of outstanding beauty, set amongst the fishing people of Sicily. He launched the careers of Francesco Rosi and Franco Zeffirelli, his assistant directors, who both went on to become masters of cinema themselves. For five years Zeffirelli was Visconti's lover. He recalls his turbulent life with Count. He also discovered stars like Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, and directed Burt Lancaster in his masterpiece The Leopard. «A poet on the frontline: The reportage of Ryszard Kapuscinski», Switzerland, 62 min, 2003 Director Gabrielle Pfeifer Producer Gabrielle Pfeifer This film will introduce audiences with the world of Ryszard Kapuschinski, the famous daredevil war correspondent and one of the world? s most important contemporary literary figures . Known as «Indiana Jones with notepad» , Kapushinski is a legend among his peers who has been looking for the truths of human experience in the most dangerous places. Filmmaker G. Pfeiffer traveled with Kapushinski in four countries, capturing his true character, his passion, his humor, his demons.
Director Yves HINANT Producer Jean LIBON Cinematography: Michel TECHY — Patrick VAN NYEN — Antonio CAPURSO - Didier HILL Production: RTBF For a long time he was called with his full name, just as any other citizen - Jean-Francois Bastin. 30 years later, after he was «touched by the Muhammad's wing», Jean-Fransois has obtained another way. Now he wears a beautiful red beard and calls himself Abdullah. And as it usually happens with the neophytes, who try to keep their leading position in the commune, he's more muslim then the imam. He should permanently feel that he has some special mission. Otherwise how could be explained the fact that he has become the founder of the islamist «Party of citizenship and prosperity»? Currently, on the threshold of the Belgian Legislative Chamber, we are afraid even to imagine, what would happen if this party gets the majority. Frankly speaking, what religion does not stretch it's political hands? But if the adequacy of this group's demands affects the election results, we shall face the fact, that this result becomes nothing else, but the political platform for the «Party of citizenship and prosperity»… «Our heavenly doctor», Russia, 32 min Director: Svetlana Bychenko «Krasnoyarsk Territory is huge: inhabited by 3 million people. Two of them live in the city of Krasnoyarsk, and the rest scattered about the vast area from north to south — so how on earth you suppose to do without us, flying doctors? Sometimes I think: what a pity that we don't have wings so we could manage to do much more. Just fancy that: you're on your deathbed and suddenly a doctor flies out of the blue — I doubt that reanimation will rescue your life after that. That's why we're flying in «Bruins» — that's how we call our helicopters, and that's how we're called — «air ambulance»». Thus a provincial doctor begins his story about the unusual life of «flying doctors» of the Krasnoyarsk air ambulance. «Medical Examination», Russia, 21 min Director: Sergey Golovezky Director of photography: Stanislav Smirnov Once in a year doctors come to a remote Byelorussian village, inhabited by only 9 people, in order to make a regular medical examination. For the local residents their arrival is an event of great importance, and the doctors get to know life stories of all of the inhabitants in a couple of hours.
Directed and produced by: Erik Gandini Director of Photography: Carl Nilsson, Lukas Eisenhauer Editing:Johan Söderberg Production company: ATMO, 2003 for: SFI/SVT/NFTF/YLEIS An intense visual odyssey filmed over three years in eight countries. From the explosive riot days in Genoa 2001 to 7000$ sex dolls in the US, Surplus explores the destructive nature of consumer culture. Against a familiar backdrop of cynical world leaders, corporate captains and Microsoft fanatics the film focuses on the controversial anti-globalization guru John Zerzan, whose call for property damage has inspired many to take to the streets. Stunning editing and breathtaking cinematography turns the notion that 20% of the world is gobbling up 80% of its resources from pure statistics into an overwhelming emotional experience. «Frog in the milk», Russia, 52 min, 2004 Director: Sania Kuznetsova Producer: Alexander Radov Thirty six years ago in a maternity hospital of Tver (called Kalinin at that time) a local beauty Nina Kotova suddenly born a black child. All the relatives were shocked, and her lawful Slavonic husband — in particular. How can such thing be sudden? When Fanuel Darti, a black-skinned medical student from Ghana had completed his studies in the USSR and was leaving for his native Africa, he could never imagine, that he was going to desert his son. He was in great perplexity, because Nina, the woman he loved, had suddenly disappeared from his life. It goes without saying that he couldn't fancy their charming son being deported from one state child institution to another to get full share of the bitter orphan's life. Black as hell is the future of the mother, who had left her first-born in the hospital at the categorical request of her husband. A year later she bears a «normal» child, but this brings no happiness to her family. All its members come to a bad end: Nina, completely worn out, finally runs her head into the noose. Then her husband totally ruins himself with alcohol and dies, and their son will only live up to twenty. But this is where a fairy-tale begins. A mulatto from orphan's home becomes an outstanding scientist. Sergey Sergeevitsch Kotov — specialist in political science, economics and psychology. To the presentation of his second dissertation there arrives a world famous royal doctor Fanuel Darti, who has forgotten neither Russian language nor his Russian love Nina Kotova. Only now a son gets to know his father and a history of his mother whom he had been seeking for so long. Thus, in a provincial city of Tver occured a world-class sensation, that we have happily filmed. But to our opinion, the core of the sensation is not so much the reunification of the family, that happened due to the common efforts of Sergey's wife, who had launched a detective investigation, and a TV-program «I seek you» («Æäè ìåíÿ»). Yet it's the unbelievable transformation of an «ugly duckling» into a beautiful «black swan». Having started from less then nothing, Sergey managed not only to overcome obstacles and troubles, to withstand all the vicissitudes of life, that had so often tripped him up, but to rise from tractor driver to rector and thus to make a glorious name. His newly discovered father is very proud of him. Thus much, that after consulting his distinguished relatives, he suggested his son to run for President of Ghana. And in the meantime he appointed Sergey rector of the International Institute for Ergonomics, that he had set up together with him. But as his friends assure us, Sergey Kotov would never leave Russia. He is too much Russian. His daughter has recently been baptized in an Orthodox church before the eyes of the happy grandfather. But tails aside. This story raises a grave and grievous issue concerning the «Afro-Russians», a rather big group of our citizens, and, more generally, the problem of racial intolerance, xenophobia, moral depravation and brutality of a Philistine. During the last 30 years about 70 thousands of black-skinned students were studying in Russia, and about 25-30 thousands of black orphans were born afterwards. Course of their lives is a bloody battle. And though in Russia there has been put in force a law against racism, regular manifestations of racial intolerance become an overall phenomenon. And this problem grows more important from year to year. Besides this unique story, the film also traces several harrowing stories of other Afro-Russian. Most tragic is that in 90% they are very talented, and could have contributed to the genetic fund of the country. If only our people could suppress their instincts and reveal their natural goodness, regarding brutality as self-destruction but pure kindness as self-preservation! This was the reason for us to create this film - controversial and optimistic at the same time. «The Hermitage Dwellers», The Netherlands, 73 min, 2004 Director Aliona van der Horst Producer Valerie Schuit Screenplay Aliona van der Horst The immense and world famous Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg becomes all the more fascinating when we encounter its very special employees. Despite their negligible salaries, these museum dwellers live and work long hours in the colossal Winter Palace of Catherine the Great, in the midst of paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt and Matisse. They possess a remarkable loyalty and devotion to the Hermitage, not to mention an intense passion for its treasures. We get to see how much the Hermitage means to each of them and how deeply it is ingrained in every aspect of their lives. Art history is not as crucial to the story as the meaning that this art has in the personal histories of the museum dwellers. «Justice in time of war», Italy, 90 min, 2003 Producer; Vanni Gandolfo Director .Fabrizio Lazzaretti Screenplay .Vanni Gandolfo and Marco Pettenello Production Company: DOCLAB PRODUCTION S.r.l. On a September morning in 1995 Giacomo Turra, a young man from Padova, in northern Italy, died in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. The case was quickly archived as an overdose — but the autopsy evidence tells another story: Giacomo Turra died at the hands of 5 police officers.24 years old, Turra was a poet and an anthropology student. He had travelled to Colombia to study the indigenous populations of the Sierra Nevada. When his father Sisto went to Colombia to reclaim his body he found he couldn't recognize his own son, so severe was the beating he'd received. Giacomo's tragedy is the beginning of a journey through present day Colombia, a country ravaged by injustice and civil war. His poems are a haunting commentary: through them we observe the militarization of all aspects of Colombian life, his family's brave struggle for justice, and the timeless search of Colombia's indigenous people for peace and harmony. Alvaro Uribe, Colombia's president, closely connected to paramilitary groups, promotes a new model of police state: the 40-year war between paramilitaries and guerrilla forces seems to have no end. And in times of war, as Colombians know all too well, human life is just the price of victory Giacomo Turra is just one of countless people murdered by the Colombian police and army but he is one of the few to have survived anonymity. Still, eight years on, justice has not been done.
This author's work of Yury Hashchevatsky and writer Vadim Spivak performs a tragicomic story of how a farmer Vasily Kurguzov from the Odoevo village asked a projectionist Shura Trufanova to marry her. The filmmakers try to perceive Russian character and village life, from the screen they talk about the actual present-day matters. The film is full of worldly humor, music and folklore. «Caucasian Captives», Belarus, 59 min, 2003 «This film shows how people's life changes at the time of war. Curiously enough, but I've noticed that very many people feel curious about war. Dreary and needy lives they lead make them believe that war is able to change the situation. What is important today for us to realize is how horrible real war is, when people become dangerous. War brutalizes one and all, be it Chechen or Russian soldier. And this brutality vents itself on our society». (Y. Hashchevatsky) «An Ordinary President», Belarus, 59 min, 1996 A sarcastic satire about Aleksandr Lukashenko. The film tells about a man, that has been devoured by his own lust for power. In general, as the film approaches the end, you even begin to feel sorry for this man — left by associates, forsaken by friends, surrounded by hangers-on, having lost the confidence of «common» people, whom he had counted upon and whom shamelessly deceived.
On Old Arbat Street in Moscow stands a big, stately house, built at the turn of the 20th century in the then-popular «moderne» style. Once upon a time, its inhabitants were rich and well-to-do: doctors, lawyers, businessmen, aristocrats. Then, the Russian Revolution swept these luminaries aside — some were shot, some imprisoned, some were «consolidated.» «Consolidation» was a term used to the practice of forcibly moving in the victorious workers into once-stately apartments of the so-called bourgeoisie. These apartments became communal, a concept difficult to explain to those who have never lived communally. A shared kitchen, bathroom, toilet, telephone, hallway; with the inevitable squabbles about household matters such as whose turn it might be in the bathroom, who didn't turn the lights out, whose turn it might be to wash the floor, and numerous other «pleasantries Despite all this, people lived out their lives in these apartments — loving, struggling, suffering losses, hoping for a better future. Over the course of the century, the fates of these ordinary people reflected all of the events which took place in Russia — sometimes shameful, sometimes nightmarish, sometimes merely bleak and colorless. Eventually, all of the residents of the communal apartments were given apartments in newly built highrsises in different sections of Moscow, and the house was given to the Soviet Ministry of Culture. After the fall of the USSR, there was no more Ministry, but the house «with the knights» still stands, venerable and proud, on Arbat Street. Life goes on within its walls and its residents, like always, hope for the best. «The Prince is Back», France/USA/Russia, 60 min,1999 The very name of the film is somewhat ironic. What kind of «prince» can there be in a Russia after 75 years of Soviet rule — a rule of terror, when all were made «equal» and well-to-do people's properties were seized? Some were imprisoned or executed, others fled, while others remained, trying to hide their aristocratic roots as best they could. Everyone became simple Soviet people, of unremarkable lineage. Suddenly, as though out of nowhere, the aristocrats and courtiers have crept back, laying claim to fancy titles and intricate family trees. Fine, they can play at heraldry and nobility, but no one will ever give them back what they once owned, and they have no realistic hope of capitalizing on their fine aristocratic pasts. And yet — in Alabino, near Moscow, Prince Evgeny Meschersky has attempted to reclaim the ruins of the titular home of his ancestors. Along with his wife and three children, the Prince has moved into the broken, run-down, dirty house and has been trying to re-build and restore it with his own hands. He is trying to get legal rights to it and while, according to the Constitution, he does have some claim to the estate, there are no laws in place to actually enforce the issue But the Prince doesn't lose hope. He digs a well, mixes cement, makes a new fireplace, and even takes the time to travel to St. Petersburg to witness the re-burial of the Russian royal family — here is a reason to be seen in the new «high society,» as well as discuss the future fate of Russia with his peers… «The Man from Archangelsk», Russia, 59 min, 1986 Stalin's forced collectivization of Soviet farmers during the 19030s was a failure, creating an ineffective system of agriculture. In a land whose rich soil and farming potential made the collectives? inability to meet their goals and provide food for a starving population, this failure was painfully apparent. But now one dared to speak up nor challenge the Communist ideology — until a simple man from Archangel, Nikolai Semenovich Sivkov, gave voice to the tacit silence of many. Sivkov decided to work on rebuilding his father's old farm, creating a modern operation. A veritable «Jack of all trades,» hard-working, crafty, and stubborn, fully cognizant of modern technology, he was not afraid of the open conflict which he encountered, first from the collective farm which allowed him to start his venture, nor from the local Party leadership, which tried to do everything in their power to prevent the showing of the film about Sivkov on television. Made at the dawn of perestroika, The Man from Archangel was the impetus and inspiration for numerous other farmers to follow his example, and create the kind of farm which had earned people in the Soviet past the hated — and dangerous — sobriquet, kulak. The phrase «man from Archangel» has entered folk terminology, becoming eponymous for this sort of effort. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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