The Russian Pavilion has opened at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. This is the fifth year for the Russian Cannes Pavilion and the second year in which Sberbank has sponsored it. Adhering to its primary objective – promoting Russian films on the international market – the pavilion opened with the presentation of 10 new films that will either hit the screens this year or are likely to do well on the festival circuit.
Judging by the Cannes presentation, the main hope of contemporary Russian cinematography is Boris Khlebnikov, who is concurrently coming out with two films. One is titled The Long Happy Life, which was described by producer Roman Borisovich as a loose remake of Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon, noting that Boris Khlebnikov successes in making a more profound picture. According to co-producer Alexander Kushaev, the hero of this story “must fight not in order to survive but in order to preserve his own identity – and this struggle for him becomes suicidal.” The Long Happy Life is the final piece of a trilogy, following Khlebnikov’s Free Floating and Help Gone Mad, which shared the same scriptwriter – Alexander Rodionov, operator – Pavel Kostomarev, and lead actor – Alexander Yatsenko. According to the producers, the third film is the strongest of the trilogy and perhaps the best work yet by Boris Khlebnikov.
At the same time, no less impressive, judging by the fragments shown at the pavilion, is Khlebnikov’s other experiment – Till Night Do Us Part, the screenplay for which was written by Alexander Rodionov. The scenario is based on a story by journalist Olga Utkin derived from conversations overheard in a Moscow restaurant. This is a ready-made storyline to which the filmmakers added a plot involving the waiters, allowing for cameos by an enormous number of popular figures (from Sergei Shnurov to Avdotya Smirnova), adding to the already sharp-witted material and providing hope for substantial box-office returns for a film that cost only $100,000.
Avdotya Smirnova presented at the Russian Pavilion her own film, a comedy called Kokoko, which according to film critic Andrei Plakhov, “metaphorically reflects the social realities of modern Russia.” To put it shortly, it tells the story of the friendship of two women, one – an intelligent employee of the Kunstkamera museum and the other – “from the masses.” Producer Sergei Selyanov pointed out that there have not been very many films in the history of cinematography in which the two lead roles are played by women. Much of the success of Smirnova’s film lies in the selection of the lead actresses: Anna Mikhalkova plays the role of the intellectual while the simpleton was played by Yana Troyanova, who is known to arthouse crowds for her role in the drama Wolfy.
The authors of last year’s hit I Love You – Pavel Kostomarev and Alexander Rastorguev – have once again descended on the ordinary folk of Rostov, who record their mixed-up personal lives, creating a sequel with the provocative title I Don’t Love You.
Pavel Ruminov, the creator of Dead Daughters, promises to come out with a film in the unexpectedly melodramatic genre. In the new film I’ll Be Around, Maria Shalaeva touchingly plays a girl with a brain tumor who befriends an orphaned boy. Producer Kira Saksaganskaya promised: “You will simply bawl your heart out; it is impossible to watch calmly.” She also suggested that Pavel Ruminov has reached a new level and become a very different director.
Alexei Uchitel apparently is always striving to be a different director, presenting at the Russian Pavilion his new film titled Break Loose, a drama about four OMON servicemen according to a scenario written by Alexander Mindadze and script by Zakhar Prilepin.
The film This Is What Happens to Me, whose title comes from a poem by Evgeny Evtushenko made popular as a song in the hit film The Irony of Fate, stars Gosha Kutsenko. He together with the director Viktor Shampirov wrote the screenplay and starred as two brothers in a melancholy story about how the New Year’s holidays come regardless of whether one is in the mood to celebrate. Gosha Kutsenko also debuted as a director of the film The Son, where the main hero (played by Konstantin Yushkevich) falls in love with his son’s fianc
