Moscow International Film Festival opens for the 39th time at city’s downtown Rossiya movie house on Thursday night.
After a gala opening ceremony, the Indian blockbuster ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ directed by S.S. Rajamouli will kick off the program of the festival. It is a historical fiction film that continues the epopee about Prince Sivudu whom ordinary people rescued from persecutors and brought up to maturity.
The main competition program has three Russian films. The first of them, ‘The Bottomless Bag’ by Rustam Khamdamov is loosely based on Ryunuske Akutagawa’s novella ‘In a Grove’. Starring in it, among others, is one of the grand dames of the Russian stage and screen, Svetlana Nemoliayeva, and Anna Mikhalkova.
The second film, ‘Thawed Carp’ by Vladimir Kott has brought together a trio of celebs broadly known to anyone with at least some knowledge of the Russian cinematic art – Marina Neyolova, Alisa Freindlikh and Yevgeny Mironov. The main protagonist, a retired teacher leading a modest life in a backwater provincial town, suddenly learns she has a lethal diagnosis.
‘Buy Me’ by Vadim Perelman with Yulia Khlynina, Anna Adamovich and Svetlana Ustinova in the lead roles presents a dramatic story of young girls driven by the striving for success.
The main competition program also includes ‘Crested Ibis’ (China), ‘Darkland’ (Denmark), ‘No Bed of Roses’ (Bangladesh, India), ‘Ordinary Person’ (Republic of Korea), ‘Selfie’ (Spain), ‘Star Boys’ (Finland), ‘Summer Blooms’ (Japan), ‘Symphony for Ana’ (Argentina), ‘The Best of All Worlds’ (Germany, Austria), and ‘Yellow Heat’ (Turkey).
The jury of the main competition, chaired by the Finnish film director and producer Jorn Johan Donner, include the Spanish director and scriptwriter Albert Serra, the Iranian director and producer Reza Mirkarimi, the European film star Ornella Muti of Italy, the Russian artist, dramatist and director Alexander Abadashyan, and film expert Brigitta Manthey of Germany.
The awarding ceremony has been scheduled for June 29. Sofia Coppola’s new picture ‘The Beguiled’, an adaptation of the famous novel by Thomas Cullinan.
Apart from the main competition, the program has competitions of documentary and short films, sections of South Korean, North Korean and Indian films. One of the choices for the spectators is a retrospective of films by Andrei Konchalovsky
The organizers have increased the number of floors where the films will be shown. While the main competition will take place in the Oktyabr cinematic center on the downtown Novy Arbat avenue, the list of other sites included the outdoor cinema of the Garage Center for Contemporary Arts and the Center of Documentary Films, among others.
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