World Premiere Screenings of LOOT plus Q & A with Konstantin Buslov,
director of LOOT at the following sessions:
Sat 27 Aug @ Palace Centro in Brisbane 7.10pm screening
Fri 2 Sept @ Chauvel Cinema in Paddington (Sydney) 7.00pm screening
2010-2011 has been a big year for new Russian Cinema and it has not been easy to exclude a number of films while selecting a diverse program for the eighth instalment of Russian Resurrection. In 2011, you will notice that we have made a conscious effort to reduce the number of films making up the final program. This decision was made specifically with our viewers in mind, to create a more focused and succinct program for 2011. It's what we choose to do differently that makes this, the best festival on the Australian Festivals Calendar. Quality films and unforgettable opening night parties are synonymous with Russian Resurrection – the only national event celebrating Russian culture in Australia today. And the largest Festival of Russian Cinema outside of Russia!
The 2011 Program is quality cinema – old and new. Award-winning films include the recent Cannes Film Festival winner Elena, directed by Andrei Zviagintsev, who made the list of most prolific and talented directors in World Cinema Today. There's Inadequate People, a festival winner in Russia plus Fedorchenko's Silent Souls, a winner in Venice. Festival regular, Alexei Uchitel returns with The Edge, a gritty yet visually stunning epic that cleaned up at the Nika and Golden Eagle Awards, the Russian equivalent of the Academy Awards. There is more to cinema than prizes though, and two films that everyone is talking about are Balabanov's crime drama The Stoker and Alexander Kott's Brest Fortress – arguably the best and most realistic war film made in the past 10 years. A carefully targeted selection cannot ignore the films that storm the domestic box office . It just so happens that Timur Bekmambetov is behind two of these films – one is a smart comedy with heart , Six Degrees of Celebration, the other is Lucky Trouble, a delicious romantic comedy which is suitable for the whole family starring Konstantin Khabenskiy (The Admiral) and yes, you did hear correctly, Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element, Resident Evil).
The 2011 Classics Retrospective also features a number of famous foreign actors. Sean Connery and Peter Finch head the cast in Red Tent, Malcolm McDowell is at his best in The Assassin of the Tsar, while Giancarlo Giannini delights audiences in Life is Beautiful (La Vita e bella). Our retrospective selection sees the much loved and eagerly awaited in Australia, Oscar winning film, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears. Sadly, 2011 saw the passing of one of the best Soviet and Russian actresses of the silver screen, Ludmilla Gurchenko. Gurchenko made close to one hundred films and we chose to remember her in the 1983 box-office sensation and Palm d'Or nominated Station for Two.
Let the Resurrection continue!
Nicholas Maksymow
Festival Director
