Around the World in 10 Days
By Tom Birchenough

Moscow Times, Russia
June 23 2006

Moscow International Film Festival

Alexei Muradov’s "The Worm" is the only Russian entry among the 17
films in the main competion.

Over the last 15 years, the Moscow International Film Festival has
faced up to a range of problems — on the financial and
organizational fronts (now much improved) and in the artistic value
of its central competition program. A decade ago, the country’s film
distribution industry was barely functioning, especially when it came
to the art-house market that traditionally supplies festivals with
their most interesting and critically acclaimed fare.

Today, major Russian films are released throughout the year, while
art-house distribution has grown considerably. All that has affected
MIFF’s international profile — though the jury is still out (so to
speak) on whether it lives up to the standards of an event that at
least nominally competes with Cannes, Berlin and Venice. Or, perhaps
more to the point, with the Czech Republic’s Karlovy Vary event,
which usually opens within days of MIFF and concentrates to a large
degree on Central European and Russian fare.

The first scandal of this year’s MIFF — the festival’s 28th edition,
which opens today and runs to July 2 — was that the jury was out
(this time, literally). Its expected president, Austrian director
Michael Haneke, pulled out of that position earlier this month,
citing unexpected developments in the production plans for his next
film. MIFF organizers clearly took umbrage at the news, reacting with
a distinctly hostile open letter to the director. It was the latest
in a number of incidents in recent years that suggest that a sense of
grace, especially of the kind that such events depend on, hasn’t
always been the organizers’ strong point.

Confirmed jury members include Russian director Alexei Uchitel (whose
"Dreaming of Space" took the top prize last year), British actress
Julie Christie, Canadian actor Remy Girard, Polish director Andrzej
Zulawski and French critic and producer Pierre-Henri Deleau. Only on
Wednesday was it announced that they had discussed the matter between
themselves and agreed that Zulawski would assume the role of
president.

The other perennial question about the event is the presence and
prominence of Russian films in MIFF’s programs. Given that the
domestic film industry is on a creative high at the moment — and
that the festival’s chief sponsor, the Federal Culture and
Cinematography Agency, is also a prime backer of new Russian cinema
— it is somewhat surprising that only one Russian film (Alexei
Muradov’s "The Worm") is on the main competition slate of 17 movies.

Some balance comes with Israeli director Eitan Anner’s "Love&Dance,"
a cross-cultural drama about Russian immigrants with elements of
ballroom dancing thrown in.

Moscow International Film Festival

John Malkovich Stars in "Klimt," a biopic of the Viennese painter.

A likely explanation for this state of affairs was the truly strong
program at this month’s Kinotavr film festival in Sochi, which proved
that the art-house end of the Russian film industry is thriving.

MIFF’s refusal to admit films already screened at national festivals
into its international competition seems to be depriving it of
potentially valuable material. Nonetheless, this year’s selectors —
the make-up of the body has changed considerably over the past year,
most notably with the departure of its previous head, Kirill Razlogov
— said they had seen the works concerned and decided not to invite
them. (Rivalry between the two events peaked last year when Uchitel’s
"Dreaming of Space," already announced in the Kinotavr program, was
pulled out to go to Moscow.)

The news isn’t all bad for MIFF. A potential competitor, a new
festival in St. Petersburg that was aiming for a similar
international profile, appears to have bitten the dust. Conflict
between the two events, with the St. Petersburg festival scheduled to
take place less than a month after the Moscow one was to end, would
have been interesting, although hardly inspiring; extra piquancy came
from the fact that the president of the St. Petersburg event was
initially set to be director Andrei Konchalovsky, brother of MIFF
president Nikita Mikhalkov (although Konchalovsky pulled out earlier
this year). This week brought an announcement that the event in
Russia’s northern capital — which had the strong backing of St.

Petersburg city authorities, if not all of the city’s major cultural
figures — had been nominally delayed until next year. Many doubt
that it will ever see the light of day.

Moscow International Film Festival

The French film "How Much Do You Love Me?" stars Monica Belucci and
Gerard Depardieu.

Contributing to the lack of Russian material in the MIFF competition
is the fact that some acclaimed films, such as Kirill Serebrennikov’s
Kinotavr-winner "Playing the Victim," have already opened in general
release — though it might be suspected that a real invitation from
MIFF would have persuaded the producers to hold back for a month, had
they wanted to.

What’s most surprising is that some directors who received major
acclaim at the Moscow event in recent years chose to bypass it with
their new films. Alexander Rogozhkin took prizes with his "Cuckoo"
back in 2002, but he bowed his new film, the World War II aviation
drama "Transit," at Kinotavr; it is later set to play at Karlovy
Vary. Similarly, Boris Khlebnikov — whose "Koktebel," co-directed
with Alexei Popogrebsky, took a prize at MIFF in 2003 — chose to
open his new "Free Floating" in Sochi, and to wait for further
international invitations.

That leaves the Moscow main competition, traditionally balanced
slightly toward European fare, with three films from established
major directors: France’s Bertrand Blier ("How Much Do You Love
Me?"), Hungary’s Istvan Szabo ("Relatives," featuring Russian actor
Oleg Tabakov, among others), and Chile’s Raoul Ruiz, who brings his
Austrian-French-British-German artistic biopic "Klimt," starring John
Malkovich as the famed Viennese artist.

Moscow International Film Festival

The American film "Ask the Dust" is about an interracial romance in
1930s Los Angeles.

The American film industry is traditionally little-represented at
MIFF. This year, the sole U.S. contender is "Ask the Dust" by Robert
Towne (a past Oscar-winner for his script for Roman Polanski’s
"Chinatown"). Towne’s film features a high-profile cast including
Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek. Britain’s Jeremy Brock completes the
list of English-language fare with "Driving Lessons," starring Julie
Walters.

The parallel Perspectives program includes more local fare, with
Armenian-born Maria Saakyan’s debut "The Lighthouse," a tale of
contemporary warfare in the Caucasus, and "Spring," from Uzbek
director Yolkin Tuichiyev. Another director making his feature debut,
Russia’s Mikhail Segal, comes through strongly with the World War II
drama "Franz+Polina," scripted by the late Belarussian writer Ales
Adamovich, best known in film circles for his work on Elem Klimov’s
groundbreaking 1985 war film "Come and See." Though overlong,
"Franz+Polina" heralds a new talent who treats a difficult subject —
the relations between occupying German forces and the local
resistance — through a very human perspective.

Innovations include the appearance of a new world documentary
program, titled "Free Thought," which draws on international prize
winners from the last two years. Festival screening locations are
also more compact than in previous years, with the great majority
taking place in the Oktyabr multiplex on Novy Arbat.

As for the star factor — which cynics have seen as an attempt to
make up for low quality in the festival’s films — opening night
features a screening of "The Promise" by Chinese director Chen Kaige,
who is to be feted with a lifetime achievement award. The closing
film will be Pedro Almodovar’s "Volver," with the traditional
Konstantin Stanislavsky acting award set to go to France’s Gerard
Depardieu. Any further star visits will be believed, as organizers
have said in the past, when they know that guests have gotten on
their planes.

For viewers unenticed by the competition films and immune to
celebrity, it’s the sidebar programs that provide the most reliable
viewing attractions. There’s a program of contemporary Israeli film,
the "Asian Extreme" program, which promises exactly what its title
suggests, and the established art-house strand "8 1/2 Films." The
Russian program at Dom Kino includes already-released films, as well
as some due over the next few months, including Pavel Lungin’s "The
Island," Nikolai Khomeriki’s complicated Cannes entry "977" and
British director Peter Greenaway’s Russian version of his ambitious
"Tulse Luper Suitcases." Film scholars can choose between a
retrospective of films from the Khrushchev-era Thaw, or the
distinctly contemporary Media Forum, highlighting new media
directions and intriguingly titled "Autho(Ritarianism)."

Of course, some critics will lambast MIFF on certain points — it’s
their habit — but for viewers, it’s a week of rich-enough choice
that comes only once a year.

For a schedule of screenings at the Moscow International Film
Festival, see the Cinema listings or visit