FNC 2017: Salyut-7

SALYUT-7

Салют-7

TEMPS Ø

CANADIAN PREMIERE

RUSSIA | 119 MINUTES | 2017 | Russian with English Subtitles

The film is based on real events that took place at the height of the Cold War in 1985. In February 1985, the Soviet Flight Control Center (MCC) lost control of their Salyut-7 orbital station that has been unmanned for half a year. The station only had a short time before falling to Earth, causing the death of many people if it hit a populated area and especially a large city.

The Americans are concerned it would fall on the US territoriality and that some nuclear weapons might be aboard. The USSR authorities, in turn, fear that the destruction of the Salyut-7 will put the country outside the space race, and that the US will take advantage of the situation, steal the station and learn its scientific secrets. To prevent this from happening, two astronauts are sent into space, the commander of the ship Vladimir Fedorov (actor Vladimir Vdovichenkov) and the flight engineer Viktor Alyokhin (actor Pavel Derevyanko). For the first time in history, they will have to attempt a manual docking with an uncontrolled object and then find and fix the problems on Salyut-7.

The scenario is based on real events - the mission of Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Victor Savinykh. The names of the real people in this space drama film are changed to emphasize that it is not a documentary but an artistic interpretation of it. Details and action portrayed are dynamic and dramatic and keep viewers in suspense. The visual design and acting are very strong. The amount of problems the two astronauts face, the way they deal with them, their space walk, and their camaraderie are quite inspiring and impressive.

FNC OFFICIAL SYNPOSES

“In space, no one can hear you repair a Soyuz. This Russian blockbuster dramatizes one of the unsung heroic moments in the history of the space race.

True story: on February 11, 1985, Salyut-7 went quiet. The crown jewel of Soviet space technology was at risk of crashing to Earth with disastrous consequences. With the Cold War at its peak — on Earth and in space, in science and in politics — the situation was a complicated one. Two cosmonauts are sent on an apparently impossible mission to repair the craft and save the motherland’s honour. Can they do it ?”

DIRECTOR: Klim Shipenko

SCREENWRITER: Aleksey Chupov

ACTORS: Vladimir Vdovchenko, Pavel Derevyanko, Aleksandr Samoilenko, Lyubov Aksyonova, Ilya Andryukov 

FILM TRAILER

For more informations about the FNC, the program, film scheduling and various venues visit the FNC festival's website.

MWFF 2017: Anna Karenina. Vronsky’s Story

ANNA KARENINA. VRONSKY’S STORY
Анна Каренина. История Вронского

WORLD COMPETITION

Russia

This was the Montreal World Film Festival 2017 opening film, projected right after the opening speeches and the declaration of the festival being open. The film is an imaginary sequel to a Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina.

Montreal World Film Festival's Official Synopses:

"1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, in Manchuria. Hospital director Sergey Karenin discovers that his patient, Vronsky, is the one who has ruined his mother's life, Anna Karenine. Without great expectations, he asks Vronsky the question that has haunted him all his life: what pushed his mother to end her life. Vronsky consents to tell him the story of his tragic love for Anna."

The film is a period piece that masterfully portrays both the horrors of the 1904 war and the splendour of the Russian aristocratic society some 30 years prior to that war, the time of the Leo Tolsoy novel's plot. It depicts the bravery of the Russian solders and officers during the war, their special attitude of honour, and at the same time the strict behaviour rules for Russian high society women that affected so tragically the main characters' love story. 

A chance encounter brings Vronsky, Anna's lover, to meet Anna's son Sergey so many years after his love affair with Anna. A dialogue that takes place between them, cut into sequential pieces due to Segey Karenin's army doctor responsibilities, elucidates the nature of the relationship that Vronsky had with Anna. It becomes very clear that theirs was not just a banal love affair but real love, and that Vronsky is still haunted by this relationship so many years later. 

Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina has been recognized from the very time it was first published in the 19th century as the world's literary masterpiece. By watching this film, especially those who have not read the novel, will have a chance to acquaint themselves with the Leo Tolstoys's genius as a writer and his sensitive understanding and portrayal of the women and their place in the society of his time. Both the novel as well as this film show great sympathy for the main heroin Anna, and make the reader and the viewer to contemplate her situation and her desperation, affecting gravely her emotional stability that led to a tragic end.

I highly recommend this film. Not only will it acquaint the spectator with some past historical events, but it will also bring closer to the viewer the Russian 19th century high society culture and the way of life, and the emotional world of some women who were on the bring of being emancipated yet unable to fight to the end the well entrenched society's obstacles.

PRODUCTION TEAM

DIRECTOR:  Karen Shakhnazarov

SCRIPT: Karen Shakhnazarov, Yuriy Poteenko (co-writer)

LEAD ACTORS: Elizaveta Boyarskaya, Maksim Matveev

COUNTRY: Russia
LENGTH: 137 min.

LANGUAGE: Russian, French subtitles

Check the MWFF 2017 films schedule here.

Visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website for more information.

N.B.

On September 4, 2017, this film received the Best Artistic Contribution Prize awarded at the festival's closing ceremony.

FILM TRAILER

Article's dedicated web address.

MWFF 2016: A Touch of Wind

A Touch of Wind - Прикосновение ветра

FIRST FILM COMPETITION

DIRECTOR: Olga Veremeeva, Elena Demidova

SCRIPT: Olga Veremeeva

Producer: Anastasiya Razlogova, Anjei Petras

Sound Director: Ilya Veremeev

Music: Anjei Petras

COUNTRY: Russia; 77 min.

LANGUAGE: Russian, English subtitles

Official Synopses:

"A documentary within a fiction story. An experiment. The shooting of the film takes place in Buryatia, the southeastern part of Russia that is considered the hub of Buddhism in Russia."

The film has a very original and unusual plot concept where reality and fiction intertwine. The invented story is conjoined with the film's documentary film matrix in such a way that it is hard to separate the two, they become a single whole.

The plot takes place in Buryatia, and autonomous region in Russia. If you search on Google Maps for Buryatia, you will see that it hugs the upper tip of the Lake Baikal in Siberia, and rans along almost all of the lake's south-east shore, coming to the stop at the border with Mongolia. It is an unknown region to most people.

So what part of the film is the fictional story and how does it glue together with the documentary part? The invented  story is about Yulia, an ageing actress from Moscow, who gets a role in the film to be shot in Buryatia. She profits from this situation to try to find and reconnect with her boyfriend from the long gone student years. She is a Russian and he is a Buryat, and what ties them together, unknown to him, is far more than the memories of their bygone love...

Coming to Buryatia, Yulia reconnects to her past and also to her own spirituality when she meets Eduard. This is when the documentary part begins as Eduard starts to introduce first Yulia and then to the entire film's crew the sacred spiritual places of Buryatia, the colourful Buddhists temples, a traditional skills and competition festival, as well as the natural vistas of the land. The spectators share this journey with the actress and the film crew, and get to discover an amazing region of the world that most did not know existed. This journey brings Yulia to some personal soul searching, a realization how untruthful she was in her life, and a personal cleansing, release of her past.

 It is also noteworthy how the film incorporates into its plot the real auditions for the principle female role, and how this ties together with the documentary matrix of the film. Although the questions the prospective actresses were had been compiled before the interviews, and the women were told they would be filmed during their auditions, their answers and reactions are real and unpremeditated. Also, both Anya's Eduard's names are their real-life names. And Eduard is an opera singer, the same as his character in the him.

Several members of the crew were present at the Montreal World Film Festival screening. They presented their film on the stage before the projection and answered questions from the audience afterwords. Photos below show the film crew before the projection of the film. On the left are the film director and script writer Olga Veremeeva with her husband Ilya Veremeev who is the film's Sound Director and their daughter in the pram. On the right they are joined on the stage by the Film Producer Anastasiya Razlogova and the Music writer and compiler Andjei Petras.

MWFF 2016: Contribution

CONTRIBUTION

WORLD COMPETITION

DIRECTOR: Sergey Snezhkin
COUNTRY: Russia; 100 min
LANGUAGE: Russian, English subtitles

Loosely based on the story by Leonid Yuzefovich "Contribution".


Official Synopses:

"In Siberia, in 1918, an investigator of the Red Army sentenced to death must find a precious diamond that has mysteriously disappeared for a chance to be pardoned by the White Army."

This is a suspense film set in a historical period of the Russian Revolution and the ensuing Civil War. It takes place in 1918 in the city of Perm as it had just been captured from the Reds by the Central Siberian White Guard Corps under the command of a young General Anatoly Pepelyaev. His army is exhausted, it has no supplies, ammunition, uniforms, or food. To resolve the problem, the General invites the Perm merchants to ask them for the money for his army. Each is ordered to provide a specific sum in gold, refereed to (in a psychological twist of the meaning) as a contribution rather than an expropriation.

A rich widow Chagin brings her "contribution", an expensive 140 carats diamond. The next day, the diamond mysteriously disappears. In order to solve this mystery, the Red Army investigator Andrei Murzin, condemned to death by a firing squad, is asked to find the precious stone by a certain hour in exchange for a pardon. 

The film's suspense line, and the type of an arrangement where all the suspects are kept together at the same location for questioning, resemble Agatha Crystie stories, this likeness further intensified by the lavish palace-like setting and some similar period costumes. But then the similarities part. This film's plot also shows some horrors and excesses of the Russian Civil war and the senseless ideas-based imprisonment and executions.

The filmography uses brownish, at times black and white tones, especially at the beginning of the film, as to resemble old, faded photographs. This also helps to create the sense of the historical past, and a certain mood of the old-era memory reflections. The plot has a few intriguing twists and a keen sense of suspense that many spectators will find compelling to watch.

MWFF 2015: ON THE ROAD TO BERLIN

DOROGA Na BERLIN  / ON THE ROAD TO BERLIN
Дорога На Берлин

2015, Colour, Russia, 82 minutes, World Competition 

Production Team:

Director : Sergei Popov

Screenwriter : Emmanuil Kazakevich, Evgeniy Nikishov

Cinematographer : Shandor Berkershi

Editor : Olga Kolesnikova

Cast : Amir Abdykalov, Yuriy Borisov, Maksim Demcherko, Andrey Deyugin, Artem Lebedev

Music : Roman Dormidoshin

Film production and Sales : Prod.: Aleksandr Litvinov, Karen Shakhnazarov, "Mosfilm" Cinema Concern, 1 Mosfilmovskaya Street Moscou 119991 (Russie), tél.: 0074991439700 / 0079857675796, simagin@mosfilm.ru.

The film won the Ecumenical Jury Mention at the Montreal World Film Festival 2015, on September 7, 2015. 

The plot of the film On the Road to Berlin is based on the story by Emmanuel Kazakevich Two in the Wilderness (in Russian Двое в степи), and war diaries of Konstantin Simonov. It shows the heroism of Russian solders who at the beginning of the World War II had to face German tanks just with ordinary rifles or even hand guns, as the Soviet army was ill equipped and unprepared for the war, and who were ordered to get up and attack the approaching enemy tanks when it was quite obvious they could not possibly cause any harm to the heavily armoured German military machinery. 

But the film is much more than just about that. It is about how the real courage grows little by little in a young man who for the first time faces the terrible realities of war. It is also about a true friendships that develops under the most difficult circumstances when a soldier is under a court marshal order to be guarded and to be delivered to the army headquarters to be executed. It is also about a soldier's honour and the responsibility to keep orders no matter what, and about how the honesty and the playing of one's life cards all above the board bears good fruit. So the reach of the movie is much wider than just illustrating the far gone war circumstances. It has an emotional and moral impact even on our present life.

The strength of soldiers' character portray the inner resolve that had for ages puzzled those who went to conquer Russia, even when much better equipped than the Russians or having a considerably larger army. Time after time, the ill prepared Russian army had to retreat as far inland as Moscow, and even to surrender its capital city as what happened with Napoleon. Yet the Russian spirit at some stage would always pick up its force, gather the inner and physical strength, and totally defeat the enemy. 

As I was leaving the projection hall, I heard a lady from the audience to utter this comment, "Those Russians! They really react differently!" Go see the film, it might help you to understand better the Russian enigma.

Film's Official Synopsis:

"It is the summer of 1942. It is the thick of World War II and the bitter battle for Stalingrad is underway. The young lieutenant Ogarkov, a communications officer, is given important instructions -- to convey command orders about redeployment for the 341st division. In the confusion of an advance to the rear and localized fighting, the lieutenant does not deliver the orders and as a result the division ends up surrounded. A military tribunal court martials Ogarkov and sentences him to death by firing squad. Before the sentence can be carried out the convict is assigned to an escort - the Kazakh Dzurabaev. But due to a surprise attack by the Germans the execution of the sentence is delayed. The escort and the convict remain alone and together they must overcome obstacles and make their way to headquarters. In spite of it all, a silent friendship develops between the convicted man and his escort. Together they break through the encirclement, they do battle against the Germans and they even are awarded the highest honor - the commendation of the Order of the Red Star. But the death sentence was never rescinded and the road leads the new heroes to staff headquarters..."

Director

Born in Moscow in 1974, Sergei Popov graduated from VGIK, the celebrated Russian film school and soon began directing television series, starting with New Era (2002-2003). Other TV dramas quickly followed: Icon’s Hunters (2004), Friend or Foe (2005), Goddess (2007), Cold Sun (2008), I’m Looking for You (2009), The Wish (2009). His big screen credits include THE GAP (2001), TRUE LOVE (2012) and THURSDAY, THE 12TH (2012). 

Film Projections

Sunday August 30, 2015 - 11:30 AM - CINÉMA IMPÉRIAL
Sunday August 30, 2015 - 04:30 PM - CINÉMA IMPÉRIAL

Images courtesy of the Director of the film.
Film review © 2015 Nadia Slejskova  

MWFF 2015 SOUL OF A SPY - Press Conference

The Soul of a Spy Press Conference
August 29, 2015

The Montreal World Film Festival organizes Press Conferences for films that are in the World Competition. DUSHA SHPIONA / THE SOUL OF A SPY had two representatives from the film's production team attending the festival. Both were present at the press conference to answer questions from the journalists and the general audience. They were the film's director Vladimir Bortko, and the film's cinematographer, the director of the photography Elena Ivanova.

Vladimir Bortko does not only direct films, he is also a representative of the Russian government, a member of the Russian State Duma, which is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia (legislature). When I asked him whether it was hard to combine those two responsibilities, his simple answer was, "Yes, it us difficult." 

Botko has a very personal approach to his cinematographic work. He stated it was not something outside of him but came from within himself, from his own inner quest of searching for what was right or wrong to do in his own life or in his parliamentary duties. Each time he is involved in supporting or working on a new legislation, he always asks himself what if the opposition that does not want that particular bill to be passed is correct? It then becomes a decision based on his firm understanding as to what would truly benefit Russia - his Fatherland, called in Russian the Motherland. 

It was remarked at the conference that each location portrayed in the film had its own special and very specific atmosphere. Vladimir Bortko gave a full credit for that to the director of the cinematography Elena Ivanova with whom he later posed next to the official poster of his film.

Vladimir Bortko has a very poetic approach to the selection of the actors. He said that a musician had a musical instrument for his artistic expression. The sound of the Stradivarius violin is very different from the violin bought at a regular music store.  In the same way, a movie director searches for a Stradivarius type of actors for his film. He said it was not difficult to secure the internationality known actors like Malcolm McDowell or Sandrine Bonnaire. He sent them the script, they read it, liked it, stated the price that they estimated to be fare for their participation in the film, and he accepted it. He remarked that the remuneration they stipulated was lower than what the Russian actors would have asked.

The discussion with the journalists continued even after the press conference ended, in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency hotel which is one of the festival's sponsors.

Visit the Festival's website here.

© 2015 Nadia Slejskova

MWFF 2015: THE SOUL OF A SPY

"The Soul of the Spy" Official Russian Poster

DUSHA SHPIONA / THE SOUL OF A SPY

Душа шпиона

2015, Colour & B W, Russia, 110 minutes, World Competition 

Production Team:

Director : Vladimir Bortko

Screenwriter : Vladimir Bortko, Mikhail Lyubimov. D'après le roman/Based on the novel: And Hell Followed Him. De/By: Mikhael Lyubimov

Cinematographer : Elena Ivanova

Editor : Leda Semenova

Cast : Andrei Chernyshov, Malcolm McDowell, Daniil Spivakovskiy, Liam Cunningham, Fedor Bondarchuk, Sandrine Bonnaire

Music : Igor Krutoi

Film production and Sales : Prod.: Leonid Vereshagin, Anton Zlatopolskiy, Natalia Bortko, Three T Productions / Studio 2B2 Entertainment, Kamenoostrovsky Avenue 10, St. Petersbourg 197101 (Russie), info@trite.ru / pr@lenfilm.ru.

Director

Born in Moscow in 1946, Vladimir Bortko grew up in the family of the Ukrainian Soviet playwright Aleksandr Korneychuk. After his studies in the Geological College in Kiev and his military service, he worked as an electrical engineer in Kiev before studying theatre and cinema and joining the Dovzhenko Film Studios as an assistant director. He made his own directorial debut in 1975 with KANAL and came to international attention in 1988 with his adaptation of Bulgakov's HEART OF A DOG. For television, he adapted Dostoyevsky's The Idiot and Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. His 2009 film, TARAS BULBA, adapted from Gogol, was also a popular success. 

This film is based on the book And Hell Followed Him written by the former Soviet intelligence officer Mikhail Lyubimov who personally experienced the same espionage situations and adventures as his heroes. In the 1960s, he was a Soviet spy resident in London. He was well known in the best English houses where he appeared with the same charming smile as The Soul of the Spy's main character. He spoke with influential politicians and major cultural and public figures. The author of the book was merciless and direct in portraying the realities of the international spy sceen, and this is also the case with Vladimir Botko, the director of the film. 

The film shows the worldwide game of spying in a way it has never been seen on the screen before. In addition to the suspense, it has just the right combination of the rhythm, changing of the scenes, the introduction of new characters, situations, and the mounting of the intrigue. The actors succeeded with professional mastery to portray not only the "art of spying" and all that is involved in that dirty and dangerous game, but also to show the inner turmoil, emotions and even moral dilemmas of what is right and wrong, and how far one is obliged, wiling and able to go to achieve the required goals. One of the key question that arises is to what an extent is one justified either by a situation, or within oneself, to use innocent people, basically bystanders, who might even care and love you, in deceiving them, endangering their lives, and even causing their death.

Several internationally recognized actors appear in this film. It shows that by agreeing to participate in the film they recognized its great value and overall impact. But even those actors whose name or faces you do not recognize, they all act with high professionalism and talent.

Film's Official Synopsis:

"A Russian intelligence agent Alexander Fedorov who works in London under the name of Alex Wilkie asks for a political asylum in the West. He then becomes a double agent working for both Russia and USA. But for whom is he really working? His territory covers Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Egypt, Morocco and Russia. The story ends up with the solution to the riddle and five corpses. But this isn't a normal spy story. It is about a spy's methods and instruments. A surgeon works with a scalpel, a miner with an air hammer. A spy, notwithstanding what country he is working for -- China or Japan, Russia or USA -- has the same instruments: blackmail, theft, eavesdropping, forgery... And when required even murder. A spy may have a few wives -- for purposes of cover. No friends, but plenty of informers. In order to lead a double, a treble life. It is a profession that makes an imprint on a human being, as it did on the KGB colonel Michael Lyubimov during the Cold War. "

The film had its World Premier at the Montreal World Film Festival. Do make an opportunity to see it.

Projections

Friday August 28, 2015 - 04:30 PM - CINÉMA IMPÉRIAL
Saturday August 29, 2015 - 02:00 PM - CINÉMA IMPÉRIAL

Images courtesy of the Montreal World Film Festival and the director Vladimir Bortko.

Film review © 2015 Nadia Slejskova