{{Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) is celebrating its 35th edition this year, taking place from June 20 to 29, with likely high-profile guests, including Brad Pitt and now-Russian citizen Gerard Depardieu.}}<\/p>\n
The festival is among the oldest of its kind the world. The first edition was in 1935, with its jury headed by Sergei Eisenstein, but it did not become a fully annual event until 1995, despite increasing in regularity until then.<\/p>\n
This year, the jury features skilled filmmakers from countries as diverse as Iran, France and South Korea, with competitors hailing from an equally impressive range of countries.<\/p>\n
The premier of Pitt\u2019s new film, World War Z, introduced the first day of the festival at Oktyabr Theater as it opened on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Depardieu is expected to appear as the festival draws to a close at the screening of Rasputin, in which he plays the \u201cMad Monk\u201d himself, scheduled for June 29.<\/p>\n
There are three competitions to be held across the main body of the festival: the more general \u2018film\u2019 category, documentary film, and short film, as well as a selection of Hollywood classics being shown throughout.<\/p>\n
Gareth Jones\u2019 exploration of a relationship through trauma, \u201cDelight\u201d opens the main competition, in which 16 different directors are competing.<\/p>\n
Also showing will be Danish director Alex van Warmerdam\u2019s \u201cBorgman,\u201d which recently screened at Cannes, and Nicholas Winding Refn\u2019s crime thriller \u201cOnly God Forgives,\u201d starring the ever-popular Ryan Gosling.<\/p>\n
Winners will receive a Saint George inspired 24-karat golden trophy \u2014 a classic Russian symbol, also forming the competition\u2019s logo \u2014 designed by jewelry house Carrera y Carrera.<\/p>\n
Outside the competition there are numerous other film programs. The festival is screening eight different movies about Stalingrad alone.<\/p>\n
There will also be a Korean cinema showcase and some other intricately-titled categories: \u201cfilms around the world,\u201d \u201calmost all of Bertolucci\u201d and the rough but promising \u201csex, food, culture and death\u201d genre.<\/p>\n
A popular element of the festival is the \u201ctraditional Russian film program,\u201d from June 21 to 28, during which 25 full-length films will be shown.<\/p>\n
The Russian film program will take place in The House of Cinema (of the Filmmakers\u2019 Union) and is an ideal opportunity to taste some homegrown Russian projects.<\/p>\n
One of the program\u2019s pearls is the 2013 film \u201cThirst,\u201d from director Dmitry Turin. Thirst was based on a novel by Andrei Gelasimov that goes by the same name. He also wrote the script.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important theme is the desire to live again,\u201d Turin said.<\/p>\n
Turin hopes that the European spectators will see beyond the standard picture of Russia and Russians through his film.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia has been shown very negatively in films that have become famous in the past few years. I would like to show Russian people as human beings,\u201d Turin said. \u201cI admit that we have problems, everybody in the world does, but we are good people actually, deep inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cuniversal story\u201d uses all-Russian elements to present itself to the viewer:<\/p>\n
An initially talented boy is left with nothing and joins the army. He gets caught in tank-fire in Chechnya and when he gets back home he seeks consolation in vodka.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main character has all possibilities to hate the world, because he is unlucky, he is terribly unlucky. \u2026 But the moment he stops hating the world, the world stops hating him,\u201d Gelasimov revealed proudly.<\/p>\n
He believes viewers may even find comfort in the film.<\/p>\n
Gelamisov\u2019s novel is written in the first person. To visualize this transition that the main character makes, how he gets \u201cout of his prison,\u201d the artists used Point of View shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cDmitry, as a director, shows this in the film through the character\u2019s eyes. As the character slowly gets out of his prison, after 15 minutes, we will see the character\u2019s face for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The festival will also host a special program dedicated to the memory of recently deceased director Alexei Balabanov. Five of his films are to be screened, including \u201cBrat,\u201d his most famous.<\/p>\n
Gennady Sidorov\u2019s adaptation of the controversial \u201cRomance\/Novel With Cocaine\u201d \u2014 the translation of the novel\u2019s title was deliberately ambiguous \u2014 is to be shown. It was unfinished upon the directors death in 2011.<\/p>\n
{The Moscow Times } <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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