Highlights from Russian Film Week 2019

So many films, and too little time? Here’s our selection of films to watch at Russian Film Week.

Great news for the lovers of World Cinema, Russian Film Week is taking place this week (24 Nov – 01 Dec) showing both Russian and co-produced feature films, shorts, documentary and animated films. The festival also includes a number of events, such as: Industry Forum, master-classes and workshops by award-winning filmmakers, talks, round table discussions, exhibitions and other business and entertainment events for filmmakers, distributors and audiences from both Russia and Europe.

For the full program and events details head to Russian Film Week. The festival has a variety of screenings across UK with showings in London, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Oxford. Our film picks include very different, but equally enjoyable films:

“Van Goghs”, outstanding cast including Aleksey Serebryakov, who’ll you recognize from Leviathan.

“Mark Ginzburg is a talented artist who is always depressed. He’s 52, but personal and professional success has escaped him. Many years ago, Mark moved from his native Riga to Tel Aviv to get away from his oppressive father, Viktor, who still supports him financially. Victor Ginzburg is a famous conductor. His work is his life. He never cared about Mark’s feelings and tried to mould his son in his image. Their highs and lows turned long ago into a love-hate relationship: more hate than love. Father calls his son by his childhood nickname Birdie, which infuriates the son. Son calls his father, Your Majesty, which infuriates the father. After Viktor is diagnosed with a fatal illness, the father and son set off on a difficult journey that leads from hate to love.”

“The End of Season”, inspired by Chekov’s Three Sisters.

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Prolific director Konstantin Khudyakov tells a story of three sisters who, as the USSR collapses, find themselves living in a small Baltic town. Despite a decade of adjusting to life in a new country they still feel like outsiders and long to get back to Moscow. The film draws inspiration from Chekov’s play Three Sisters, and is brought to life by the formidable talent of its three female leads.

“Kamchatka Bears. Life Begins”. A documentary about one of the most beautiful places on earth.

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The South Kamchatka Federal Sanctuary is often called a bear paradise. A production team of LESFILM headed there to film a documentary about the real lives of brown bear families. They spent seven months observing and unveiling secrets of the newborn bear cubs’ daily life. This is a movie that differs from the other nature documentaries. The film is meditative. Music, the sounds of nature and the absence of a human voice allow the viewer to plunge into the beauty of wild nature as much as possible, to feel its presence among volcanoes, rivers and wild animals, and simultaneously experience an important boundary, beyond which a person should not interfere. The film shows the world of nature that lives in line with its laws — one that is friendly to those who enter it with respect and an open heart.

“My Little Sister” – a surprisingly warm and gentle film about a little boy and his family living through WWII.

As long as Yamil can remember himself, the War has always been here. Yamil is waiting for the War to be over so his father would return home. Yamil has never met his father. He knows him only through letters and photos. One day Yamil’s mother went to a faraway town and came back with a silent girl named Oksana. Mother has passed father’s wish to Yamil: to take care of Oksana like she was his own sister. The film is a screen adaptation of the never-ageing classics of Soviet literature, the novel “The Joy of Our Home” by Mustai Karim

You can find more news from Russia Film Week and winners list of The Golden Globe Awards 2019 here.

Tags: Film Festival Russia world cinema