ARTCORE

As before the “Artcore” program introduces movies with a specific angle of narration focusing on creative professionals on the one hand, and centered on experimental works of directors in search of new means of cinematic expression on the other.

Experimental exploration cinema is the theme of two movies in the program.

The Russian film “Onegin” Hotel” by Irina Evteeva from St. Petersburg, who has repeatedly taken part in the MIFF and who is well known to our audience for her unique visual style and exquisite film technique, is a kind of homage to the sun of Russian poetry, Alexander Pushkin, whose 225th anniversary was celebrated throughout the country last year. It is not just an ode to the brilliant poet but also a reflection upon the destinies of his works which have reached almost every part of planet and to a considerable extent define the place of Russian culture in global culture, and a reflection of the modern perception of Russian poetry, embodied in various forms of art by different generations of contemporaries.

Highly experimental is the film by the Bengali director Sourish Dey “Joker”. The film lacks classical videography. The movie about the life of a small clown is made up of 60 000 stills. Put together they create a moving image and watching it the viewer inevitably feels nostalgia for the first silent films of the time of the Lumiere brothers and Melies.

Non-classical music culture is the object of investigation in two films of the program. “Village Music” by the Chinese director Lina Wong records and studies folk traditions of the Uyghurs who emigrated from Kazakhstan during the Civil War and settled in China. This black-and-white fresco is in a way a monument to the nearly extinct spiritual cultural heritage of the Uyghurs. The turbulent Venezuelan film “Al? Primera” by Daniel Yegres Richard looks at the life and work of a musician, composer, poet and political activist whose song became truly folk music and were pronounced national heritage of Venezuela following his tragic death in 1973.

The program could not overlook the history of cinema. The Canadian movie “Lachine” by the Chinese-born Michael L. Suan, permeated with love, music, dance and light, refers us to the aesthetics of the French New Wave, deeply related to the Russian rock music culture of the 1990’s.

Nina Kochelyaeva