Today, the international fiction films competition starts its screenings. The first block starts at 3 p.m. at Velikan Park. The second — right after, at 5.15 p.m. This year, the programme features nine films from nine countries, including one world and five Russian premières, as well as two directorial débuts.
The Surreal Cinema programme will present a Russian and a St Petersburg premières. The former is Corneliu Porumboiu’s The Whistlers, a genre play by the most witty film director of the “Romanian new wave.” The latter is God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunija by Teona Strugar Mitevska. It is a Macedonian dramedy about a woman that wins a traditionally male competition, thereby inadvertently challenging concervative society.
Panorama.doc documentary section presents an energetic work by Roberto Minervini, What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire? The director observes the African-American community of New Orleans shaken by a series of murders of black citizens. According to the author, he tries to refrain from manipulation. “I have to be very careful and aware of the fact that I am there, that I am very dangerous, that I could ruin everything. So the more I sabotage myself, the better it is for the film.” Another film of the section is Heimat is a Space in Time by Thomas Heise, which the director himself calls “the first attempt to speak.” In this film Heise follows the life of a family through documents during several decades.
The Collapse of Socialism provides a unique opportunity to view Chris Marker’s works from the so-called “Balkan trilogy” in Russian.
In the evening, for the first time in St Petersburg, Velikan Park will screen Vladimir Khotinenko’s The Lenin Factor. The film undermines the figure of the opportunist Parvus, whose image is well-established in film historiography and who might have been an unknown factor in the revolutionary events of 1917.
The Word Order book store will host a free-of-charge screening of Give Me Liberty by Kirill Mikhanovsky, member of the national competition jury. The author will present the film and answer questions after the screening.
Today, there will be two workshops. In St Petersburg School of New Cinema, Kirill Khachaturov, who studied at the Moscow branch of the school, will talk about animation that does not require spending money. His work Protocorba that uses 3D animation is included in the In Silico competition. St Petersburg State University of Film and Television will host a producer, festival organizer and mobile cinema adept Maxim Mussel. He will talk about specific features of the mobile cinema language.
You can find the full schedule for the day here.
