AROUND THE WORLD IN 8 DAYS

A long time ago, more than forty years ago, many critical texts were written about the Soviet film distribution. About how mercilessly foreign films were cut out in order to get on screen. About how many years, and sometimes even decades, passed before films from the West and the East reached the cinemas of the world’s first state of workers and peasants. And fair it was!

But there was certainly a positive moment in that system of film screening. Soviet people, who always went to the cinema for everything shown, realized that they were living in a vast world consisting of various countries, in each of which films were made. Posters of a domestic drama about field workers took place side by side with a spicy French comedy (of course, with erotic scenes cut out), a detective from the German Democratic Republic about the fight against foreign spies followed the sultry Bollywood action movie with tears and scuffle...

For the past thirty years, cine goers in our country had been firmly convinced that films were made only and exclusively in Hollywood. Surely, national masters sometimes also created something. As well as French artists.

Well, now – there would be no happiness, but misfortune would help. MIFF invites old people to remember, and young people to realize that the world is large, and cinema exists not only in California.

Tell me, how long ago have you seen Colombian films?.. That’s the same! Now you have got a chance to watch “ Broken Land”. And that is not all.

The Thais make films together with the French, the Dutch and the Singaporeans (“Anatomy of Time”), the Indians, again, with the French and the Qataris (“The Winter Within”). The Spaniards reflect on the creative heritage of Bu?uel (“The Fortress”), and the Italians for some reason have turned their eyes to boarding houses for mentally unstable people (“Alien Food”, “Gol!a”)...

Some films will please you, some will disappoint. But that’s not the main thing. During the eight festival days, you will go on a journey around the cinematic world and once again (or for the first time!) feel the immensity of the world of cinema.

Sergey Lavrentiev