January 12 2009
by Ludmila Cvikova
Have you ever heard of Belye Stolby? Honestly: I had not either, until last September when I got an invitation to take part in the First International Film School organised there, in the complex of the Russian Gosfilmofond (the State Film Fond of the Russian Federation). The invitation came from the organiser – the Federation of the Filmmakers Union and it was a great honour for me, as I was the only international guest there, if you do not count the participants from ex-Soviet countries.
I am invited to introduce the IFF Rotterdam and to talk about our Hubert Bals Fund. It all starts with an intensive email exchange with one of the organisers, Darya Borisova and then with one of the leading Russian film theoreticians and the film editor of Kultura,
Svetlana Khokhryakova. We have known each other for some years now, especially from the all Russian Sochi FF but mainly from my visit to Yerevan, Armenia, where in 2007 we made an unforgettable tour. Together with the Iranian master
Abbas Kiarostami we visited the churches and locations in northern Armenia where Paradzhanov shot his film Sayat-Nova.
The end of October is always a very busy period, and I still have to go to Turkey as I am preparing a special focus for the IFFR 2009 –
Young Turkish Cinema, so it's not really the best period to be closed in a distant part of Russia instead of travelling and researching. But isn't it true that the youngest generation is the future‘s greatest potential and a great investment for future research? (to use a few economic words in these difficult economic times). To make my trip even more worthwhile, I try to convince our new director
Rutger Wolfson to make his first ever trip to the Russian capital and metropolis Moscow.
On Thursday 30th November 2008 at 14.50 Rutger Wolfson and me are standing outside the Moscow-Sherenmetyevo airport holding up a paper with my name and „Kinoshkola“ in Russian on it – the driver who comes to pick us up makes a picture of us, cheerfully mumbling something to himself.
Ludmila and festival director Rutger Wolfson
Both of us are excited and full of expectations – during Rutger's short two-day visit we have many plans to carry out, meetings to hold, friends to meet and films to see. Hotel Peking is a first surprise for Rutger as I tell him that on their website they advertise with the fact that this used to be a KGB hotel. (One evening we hear this was really so and that Berija, Stalin's closest friend, even had his own whole floor here, somewhere in the top of the tower, with secret private elevators, one for people and one for the kitchen).
We are real tourists that evening, after having settled in at the hotel - walking around, discovering Moscow and its highlights: the Red Square, Lenin's Mausoleum, Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin and on the other days we also manage Kremlin and the modern art centre Kinozavod.
The first official meeting is the next morning, with the director of the Cinema Department of the Russian Ministry of Culture,
Sergei Anatolyevich Zernov. We drink tea at his office and exchange some information but there are no new films for us to see here, at the ministry. Since the structural changes of the ministry in May 2008, there is a lot of confusion in the Russian film world, and above all uncertainties around financing film projects that were already promised financial support.
We do find our own way in the film world in Moscow though, and succeed in finding new films and filmmakers through our old friends. Later in the afternoon we meet with the best Russian sales agent
Raissa Fomina, who very smartly always succeeds to get the best films of renowned film makers like
Alexei Balabanov, but also of newcomers and promising talents like
Bakur Bakuradze whose film Shultes we have invited to our programme and whose new project is selected for the
Cinemart 2009.
Rutger Wolfson and sales agent Raissa Fomina
A generous dinner with the
programme director ot the Sochi FF, Sitora Alieva follows. It's all in great style, she brings us to a rich man's club where there are alternating cultural and intellectual evenings on Thursdays, with a film screening and a lecture of the most profound Russian critic
Andrei Plakhov, as she tells us. It's a pity we cannot attend such an evening, but the food is excellent and we fully enjoy the famous Russian hospitality. Sitora is famous for it too – and she always is a fiery promoter of the Russian cinema. She brings bags full of DVD's with Russian films.
Everyone happy!
The next day, Saturday, is the last day of Rutger's visit to Moscow. He leaves very early Sunday morning, as it is his wife's birthday and he has promised to cook for the entire family. This announcement by a modern western man causes some commotion in the company of our Russian friends (especially the male part of it), and even screams like: „Have you heard that? Rutger is going to COOK!“
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