24 June 2009 // 22:51

31st Moscow International Film Festival. Day Five. Equator.

First half of the MIFF is over. On the 5^th day of the festival they spoke about the Hungarian cinema, liberalism, Chekhov, discussed the war in Georgia and European mysteries of the 17^th century. Meanwhile the participants and guests proceeded with watching the screenings in competitions and special programs.  

The Main Competition was represented by the American film “The Missing Person” by Noah Buschel. Due to the absence of the director at MIFF, the film was represented by the producer Ms. Lois J. Drabkin. It is the third full-length screening by Mr. Buschel who appears to be the editor-in-chief of the “Trycycle” magazine. “The Missing Person” is a sort of a detective-story. The story is about a new connection among people that appear in the moments of a tragedy. It is needed to overcome it and live further,» - explains the producer. Neo Buschel shot “The Missing Person” in noire style. The thing is that in the work process the film director watched a lot of films of the 30-40s. This aesthetics was always with him. “Noire is typical for the topics of war, violence, fears and anxiety,” - explained Lois Drabkin.  According to her worвы the film director personally dealt with the film music selection. “Every single track had its reason. It highlighted this or that intonation or feature of a hero.” The topic of corruption raised in the film is as relevant in the USA as in Russia. Neo Buschel is not going to stop with his present achievements – he is already planning two new unusual projects including a story about zen-buddhism. Lois Drabkin will be attracted again.

The Hungarian “Prank” (“Trefa”) is another film in Main Competition of the 31^st MIFF discussed on June 23. In Moscow the film was represented by its creators – producer Peter Gardos, actor Tamas Lengyel, producer Denes Sekeres and camera-man Laszlo Seregi junior. The idea of the film according to the film director came from a 5-page novel by a famous Hungarian writer D. Kosztolanyi written in the beginning of the 20^th century. The novel astonished me as it really reflected my feelings at that moment. For me the Kostolani's work is the Bible. His books are always on my bedside table. The film director showcased in the “Trefa” film two types of mentality – liberal that gives freedom of action and authoritarian that imposes strict behavior rules. And who is responsible for the murder that happens in the film? “Of course the screening does not answer this question,” - he says. “Most of all I like the films that make the viewers think and reflect after the final.” The film director tried to mirror the atmosphere of the beginning of the 20^th century. Thus quite often one can see relevant inventions there – photos and of course the items related to cinema. The leading role actor Tamas Lengyel  said that in first turn he is a theater  actor usually playing handsome but not very smart guys: “Thus this role has become very special to me. It differs a lot from my usual line of character.” “Trefa” is the third mutual work of the camera-man Laszlo Seregi with the film director. “Participation in this film has become a very good training school for me,” - he said.    

The film “Die Dame mit dem Hündchen” which is in “Perspectives” competition were presented by the Yuliy Koltun, the film director who is Russian but lives in Germany and Linda Matern, the producer.  The 64-years old master confessed he did not talk with press before coming to the MIFF, thus it was a sort of debut at the press-conference held on Tuesday. “I'm one of the happiest people in the world. And there are many reasons for that. One of those is that I'm here.” - he admitted. According to the film director, “Die Dame mit dem Hündchen”was produced only thanks to the support of Ms. Matern's (also born in the USSR) who agreed to encourage “this dull, boring, difficult work”. “I just believed into the screening and was sure that the experiment will succeed,” - explained Linda Marten her participation.It turned out the film director decided to screen the “Die Dame mit dem Hündchen” when he was a youngster when work in the cinema was not more than a dream. “I had such a desire as I was constantly wondering what love is.” And the film idea occurred to me after leaving for Germany when Yuly Koltun had to take quite a long break in his work. He used to work as woodworker and cloak-room attendant in a theatre and simultaneously took pains proceeding his creative work. Their work on the film lasted for 4 years. Another interesting details is that the camera-man of the “Die Dame mit dem Hündchen” is the film director himself: “I used to work with very good camera-men when shooting my previous films but always thought I would shoot in a different way. At that time it was impossible. But now I decided I can do everything myself. Tried to be a director and to shoot the way I wanted... And I managed to realize all I wanted. I think I can apply for the книгу рекордов Гиннесса.” Mr. Koltun invited the Russian actress for the leading role because he can “express the feeling only in the native language”. The film director selected the story by Anton Chekhov because his works  have always been interesting for him. “Chekhov is the Russian Shakespeare,” - he says.

Another film in “Perspetives” competition presented on Tuesday was the Georgian “The Conflict Zone” (“Konphliktis zona”) which is about the events in Georgia in the 90s of the 20^th century.  The participants of the press-conference were the film director Vano Burduli, actor Mikhail Meskhi and producer Archil Gelovani. “The Conflict Zone” is a debut full-length film by the director. “For me the war with the Abkhazians or the Osetians is the same as with the Georgians… War is lasting even now and we are all in hindsight,” – explained Mr. Burduli the idea of the film.  “Unfortunately we never learn from our mistakes. And that’s our biggest tragedy,” – the producer added. It turned out that the role was written especially for Meskhi. Mikhail is a non-professional actor first shot in a “Walk to Karabakh”, a film by Archil Gelovani that made him noticeable.  Mikhail says: “I got to the cinema by chance. I was walking in the street, two youngsters came up to me and took a picture of me. Later I found out this was a pilot for the “Walk to Karabakh”.  ” «Я, правда, случайно попал в кино. That’s how I got to cinema. When the film director and the producers saw the film they gave me another chance,” – the actors says.  According to the producers, it was very complicated to shoot the “Conflict Zone”: the total budget exceeded 280,000 euro. “It was a huge painstaking work. But finally we did it,” – comments the encouraged Mr. Gelovani.

“Bathory” film which is in no competition program, shown in “Gala-premiers” on Tuesday was presented by a famous Czech film director Jurai Jakubisko and his wife and the film producer and the leading role actress Diana Jakubisko. It is not the first time the master comes to MIFF: he used to be the chairman of the “Perspectives” program jury on the 27^th MIFF. “Bathory” is a large-scale historical screening that requested huge financial investment. Everything had to be newly produced including even spoons and cups. Meanwhile the film was shot with almost no governmental support. Diana Jakubisko was the one to raise the funds. According to her, most of the funds were attracted in Czech Republic and Slovakia. “It is very important that many countries participated in the project, especially the ones in the Central Europe,” – she noticed. “Our market has been opened for the American movies which mentally and culturally separated the Slavic folks. Now the situation is getting better.” “A while ago such films were produced by the Americans only. They were surprised to know the country they can not even find on the world map could produce such a film. The Americans were persuaded only they could do it,” – the film director added.

The story says about life and destiny of the Hungarian countess Elizaveta Bathory who is famous as a woman-killer. The film director decided it was just a legend and the truth could be different. He tried to show the story under a different angle. Jurai Jakubisko has also another target: “With the help of this legend I wanted to tell the viewers about the great history of our folks.” And to connect it with the contemporaneity: “It was common to use the political power 400 years ago and it is valid also today and I believe will be also in 400 years.”  Mr. Jakubisko worked also as an artist in “Bathory”: all the Caravaggio paintings that appear in the movie were painted by Jurai. Also he said that the hat he always wears is not only an image-item but also brings him luck.