YOU can safely predict that the Russian Resurrection Film Festival opening tomorrow will provide audience with solid cinematic fare and not fairy floss.
‘Battle for Sevastopol.’
This year’s the 12th annual festival, will prove no exception to that rule, as the Festival kicks off tomorrow night at Greater Union Manuka with Sergei Mokritsky’s 2015 war epic, ‘Battle for Sevastopol.’
The movie tells the true story of a young Soviet woman who joins the Red Army in 1941 to fight the Nazi invasion. Lyudmila builds a reputation as one of the deadliest Soviet snipers. When tragedy hits, she is pulled out of combat to join a diplomatic delegation to the USA, where she develops an unlikely friendship.
Russian Resurrection Film Festival director, Nicholas Maksymow, who founded the event in 2003, believes the line-up of films this year to be “a varied and uncompromising presentation of Russian culture.” a fluent Russian speaker, Maksymow has worked as a researcher on foreign policy in Canberra. He now works in an operational role in the aged care industry, also serving on an advisory panel with the Department of Social Services, as well as directing the festival.
Curator and associate director Greg Dolgopolov teaches and researches video production, Russian cinema and film and television theory at UNSW. He has worked as an ABC radio journalist, a writer and consultant, and started his own theatre company in Australia to stage Russian plays and new Russian performance material.
Together he and Maksymow research Russian films being released and keep an eye on which films are playing at international festivals.
But it’s not simple. “Audiences do go for a wide variety of genres…It’s often hard to predict if a film will do well at the festival or not,” Maksymow says, “Romantic comedies always seem to attract interest, as do films connected with Russian history. Historical films touching on the Soviet era and society, World War II and pre-Soviet history all do particularly well.”
Sure, there are thrillers, epic adventures, family comedies, kids’ films and rom-coms, but mostly it’s a case of talking about the war – or wars.
‘Battalion’ (2015) is set in the spring of 1917 at the height of WWI, and is based on the true story of the 1st Russian Women’s Battalion, formed as part of a propaganda ploy by the Russian Provisional Government.
‘Dawns are Quiet Here’ (2015) is set in late spring of 1942 as the Germans make an air landing operation in an attempt to break through to the Kirov railway and the White Sea. Sergei Popov’s ‘Road to Berlin’ (2015) is set in summer 1942 as battles rage around Stalingrad.
But there’s a nod to civilian life too. In drama/thriller ‘Soulless 2’ (2015) starring Danila Kozlovsky, Max rejects everything that he once believed in and heads for the warm seas surrounding Bali… But it is impossible for him to forget the big city.
There’s comedy as well. ‘Divorce on a whim’ (2015) we see bicycle coach Sergei and his wife of 20 years, Elena, a bookshop owner in the midst of domestic disagreement leading to “a torrent of uproarious misadventures.”
‘Yolki 1914’ (2014) is an omnibus film by six contemporary directors using a series of interwoven stories, showing us New Year’s Eve 100 years ago as it was celebrated by aristocrats and peasants, at grand celebrations and small soirees among the Royal family and soldiers on the WWI front lines.
And for kids (like me) there is ‘Snow Queen 2’ (2014) the sequel to the animated hit ‘Snow Queen’ (2012) where the triumphant trolls have developed a taste for freedom after their victory over the Snow Queen.
2015 Russian Resurrection Film Festival, at Greater Union Manuka November 4 – 11, bookings to eventcinemas.com.au/EventsFestivals/RussianFilmFestival or 6295 9042.
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