UDO KIER AT THE 29th MESSAGE TO MAN FILM FESTIVAL

The friend of Fassbinder and von Trier and one of the most famous German actors, Udo Kier will come to St Petersburg for the Message to Man Film Festival. He will take part in the opening ceremony of the festival, and will also present the film The Painted Bird, based on the novel by Jerzy Kosiński. The Russian audience will see the film immediately after its world première at the Venice Film Festival. Age restriction: 18+. Details and schedule: message2man.com.

On September 14, Udo Kier will take part in the opening ceremony on the Palace Square. The ceremony includes a concert by Eugene Margulis and a screening of the opening film. The ceremony starts at 7 p.m. Free admission. 

At midday on September 15, Udo Kier will launch the 29th Message to Man Film Festival by firing the cannon from the Naryshkin Bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress. 

As part of the Superreal Cinema programme, Udo Kier will present to the guests of the Message to a Man Film Festival the film The Painted Bird based on the novel by a Polish-American writer Jerzy Kosiński. The Russian première of the film and the meeting with Udo Kier will take place at the Aurora Cinema Centre, beginning at 6 p.m, September 15. An additional screening of the film will take place at the Velikan Cinema Centre.

The world première of the film will take place on September 2, 2019 at the Venice Film Festival. The film will be shown in Russia at the Message to a Man Film Festival for the first and, possibly, last time; as of today there is no information about the film’s distribution in Russia.

The book The Painted Bird tells of the horrors of war through the eyes of a six-year-old child who has lost his family and is forced to wander alone from village to village and to fight for his life. The film based on the novel was made by a Czech film director Václav Marhoul.

Udo Kier is one of the leading German actors. He was born in Cologne in 1944. Kier is a protégée of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and has also played in several films of Lars von Trier. During his career in cinema, Udo Kier played in about 200 films, including Mark of the Devil, Blood for Dracula, My Own Private Idaho, Johnny Mnemonic, Blade, Armageddon and Grindhouse.

 

About Message to Man Film Festival

The 29th Documentary, Short Feature and Animated Film Festival Message to Man will take place in St Petersburg from September 14 to 21, 2019. President of the Festival: Alexei Uchitel. Honorary President of the Festival: Mikhail Litvyakov. The art team of the festival includes leading Russian filmmakers: art director of the festival, Andrei Plakhov, director of the competition programs, Alexei Medvedev. Guests of the festival include Udo Kier (USA), Kazuo Hara (Japan), Thomas Heise (Germany), Babette Mangolte (USA), Richard Robinson (USA), Roland Walters (UK), Johanna ter Steege (Netherlands) and many others.

In 2019, the selection committee watched several thousand applications from 99 countries. The competition programs of the 29th Film Festival Message to Man presents 70 films, including 8 world premières, 3 international and over 30 Russian premières. The audience will see films from the competition, 7 special programmes, 2 retrospectives and 11 special screenings. The programme includes workshops, meet-the-artist sessions, round table discussions, a multimedia exhibition and a conference. Traditionally, students and benefit holders can watch the festival’s competition films for free (if there are available seats in the hall), while the price of special screenings’ tickets for them starts from 100 roubles.

The festival programme and schedule can be found at message2man.com.

The general sponsor of the festival is the pulp and paper company Ilim Group. Ilim Group is the leader of the Russian pulp and paper industry in terms of production volumes and investments, as well as one of the major players in the industry globally. Its production facilities are located in Arkhangelsk, Irkutsk, Leningrad, and Moscow Oblasts. In 2018, the company’s output has exceeded 3.4 million tons of pulp and paper products which are exported to more than 70 countries worldwide.

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For the Media: accreditation is open at message2man.com till September 10, 2019 (for non-resident journalists – till August 30, 2019).

Photos and broadsheets for illustration are posted at: https://yadi.sk/d/Z0G8eddWHAEScA

If you have any questions, please refer to Praskovia Shishkoyedova at: +7921737521, press@message2man.com,