Here is the third day of the XXXII Message to Man Film Festival in St. Petersburg. Every day our website will recommend five films from its competition and out-of-competition programmes.
Where are We Headed
The underground universe of the Moscow subway turns into a refuge, a purgatory, a hell, or an alien space. People on the train drink champagne, swear, watch a president’s speech on the phone, celebrate the New Year’s Eve, the Victory Day and the Russian Airborne Troops Day.
Ruslan Fedotov’s film won the Best Foreign Film category at the DocPoint Film Festival in Finland, as well as the Best Debut and Best Cinematography awards at the IDFA Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.
The Coin of Malawi
Every year, in July, Altai celebrates the birthday of its great countryman, writer, director and actor Vasily Shukshin. The distant African state of Malawi even made a commemorative silver coin with the image of Shukshin. Alexey Fedorchenko studies how it all comes together in the melting pot of Russian culture of “weirdos”.
Pebbles
India. There are 13 kilometers between two Tamil villages. An angry father and little son, for their own reasons, cross them in both directions under a dazzling sun, across a landscape lined with sandy roads. On their way they see all sorts of things: bus passengers, a young couple on a motorcycle, a puppy, a snake, a family catching rats, an airplane and someone with a camera in their hands.
Director Vinothraj P. S., While working in a DVD shop in Chennai, was introduced to people from the Tamil film industry. Pebbles is his feature film debut with its world premiere at the Rotterdam IFF, where it won the grand prix. The film was the Indian submission for the Academy Awards for the Best International Feature Film, got the grand prix of The Golden Apricot IFF (Yerevan) and prizes at Kerala IFF.
Borzenko: Ring Behind Barb Wire
The story of Andrei Borzenko, a Soviet boxer who passed through the Buchenwald concentration camp, is a real-life confirmation that the fortitude of the human spirit can work wonders. Borzenko spent more than 80 fights and was never defeated, even though he was in terrible conditions that were practically incompatible with life.
Haulout
On a remote coastline in the Russian Arctic, a solitary man spends months in a wind-battered hut, hoping for an encounter with mysterious beings. But warming seas and rising temperatures bring an unexpected change, and he soon finds himself overwhelmed. A documentary film by Maxim and Evgenia Arbugaev about the current state of the environment was included in the programmes of the Berlin Film Festival and HotDocs.
October 23, Sunday Schedule:
Dom Kino, Big Hall, 12, Karavannaya street
International Competition 1
16:45 – Intermede, dir. Maria Kourkouta, Greece, France, 2022, 24 min.
Where are We Headed, dir. Ruslan Fedotov, Belarus, Russia, 2021, 63 min.
Panorama.doc 4
19:00 – The Coin of Malawi, dir. Alexey Fedorchenko, Russia, 2022, 60 min.
Q&A with director Alexey Fedorchenko
New Voices 5
21:10 – Pebbles, dir. P.S. Vinothraj, India, 2021, 75 min.
Dom Kino, Blue Hall, 12, Karavannaya street
Special Screening
16:00 – The Chanting Willows, dir. Dai Wei, China, 2021, 106 min.
International Competition 2
18:30 – Tyranny, dir. David Adamko, Hungary, 2022, 12 min.
Character, dir. Paul Heintz, France, 2021, 39 min.
Nicolae, dir. Mihai Grecu, France, 2022, 45 min.
Red Africa 1
20:40 – Red Africa, dir. Alexander Markov, Russia, Portugal, 2022, 65 min.
Dom Kino, White Hall, 12, Karavannaya street
Student films: SPUFT
20:00 – Departed, dir. Alexander Patrunov, SPUFT, Russia, 2022, 15 min.
Shutter, dir. Egor Bolozdynya, Russia, 2022, 20 min.
After Us, dir. Darya Kovaleva, Russia, 2022, 5 min.
Malevich. Beyond the Zero, dir. Ivan Baturin, Russia, 2022, 20 min.
In Touch, dir. Sofia Osipova, SPUFT, Russia, 2022, 3 min.
My French Movie, dir. Darya Iskrenko, 2022, Russia, 18 min.
Lendoc, Big Hall, 12, naberezhnaya Kryukova kanala
Special Screening
15:30 – Borzenko: Ring Behind Barb Wire, dir. Elena Moshtal, Andrey Degtyarev, Russia, 2022, 54 min.
Q&A with Grigory Drozd, former WBC cruiserweight champion.
National Competition 3
17:40 – Your Room, Volchok, dir. Dasha Likhaya, 2022, Russia, 41 min.
Subtle World, dir. Alexandra Pustynnova, 2022, Russia, 65 min
National Competition 4
20:45 – Haulout, dir. Maxim Arbugaev, Evgenia Arbugaeva, UK, Russia, 2022, 25 min.
No Man is an Island, dir. Lena Ritter, 2022, Russia, 78 min
Rodina, Big Hall, 12, Karavannaya street
Superreal Cinema 2
20:00 – Duel, dir. Vlad Kozlov, USA, 2022, 19 min.
8 Day, dir. Evgeny Krylov, Russia, 2022, 105 min.
Rodina, Small Hall, 12, Karavannaya street
Red Africa 3
Africa. VGIK
20:45 – Africa, Rainforest, a Drum and… a Revolutio, dir. Salim Mohammad Ibrahim al-Noor, USSR, 1976, 11 min.
Poison, dir. Tamatso Kawasaki, Yevgeny Fridman, USSR, 1966, 19 min.
Sixth Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Guinea, dir. Sylla Himi, USSR, 1964, 10 min.
A City Morning, dir. Omonym Mondiu Touré, USSR, 1965, 9 min.
Postgrad, dir. Souleymane Cissé, USSR, 1969, 14 min.
The Game, dir. Abderrahmane Sissako, USSR, 1988, 23 min.
Avrora, Big Hall, 60, Nevsky pr.
Special Screening
16:30 – Ademoka’s Education, dir. Adilkhan Yerzhanov, Kazakhstan, France, 2022, 90 min.
Velikan Park, Small Hall 3, 4, Alexandrovsky park BUILDING 3
Panorama.doc 2
19:15 – Cow, dir. Andrea Arnold, UK, 2021, 94 min.
Panorama.doc 3
21:15 – Girl Gang, dir. Susanne Regina Meures, Switzerland, 2022, 98 min.
Velikan Park, Small Hall 4, 4, Alexandrovsky park BUILDING 3
New Voices 3
19:20 – There Will Be No More Night, dir. Éléonore Weber, France, 2020, 76 min.
New Voices 4
21:00 – Madalena, dir. Madiano Marcheti, Brazil, 2021, 85 min.
