‘Russian Film Days’, a film festival organised as part of an Indo-Russian government co-operation initiative, will be held in Delhi, Mumbai and Panaji.
The film festival will open in New Delhi at Siri Fort complex on November 10 with the drama film Bolshoi , which will be presented by the director himself, Valery Todorovsky.
The festival is being organised to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and India.
Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky, Russian Ambassador to India Nikolai Kudashev and leading representatives of Russian and Indian cinema are expected to be in attendance.
The opening ceremony will see a tribute paid to the legendary Raj Kapoor and his hallmark 1970s film Mera Naam Joker that ran successfully across the USSR 45 years ago.
Ballerina to attend
Special guest for the evening will be Randhir Kapoor and Kseniya Ryabinkina, a former ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater, who played one of the key roles in the film.
This is the first time that the festival is being held in Goa. The film festival will travel from Delhi to Mumbai and culminate in Goa at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). Pathbreaking films such as Light up , Hostage and Closeness will be screened at IFFI.
Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev’s new masterpiece Loveless , which will show at the festival, has been described as an “apocalyptic study of a failed marriage and the subsequent disappearance of a child” in reviews.
The festival is organised by the Cinemarus, a production company in cooperation with Russkoe Kino company and supported by the Ministry of Culture, Russian National Fund of Copyright Holders’s Support, the Filmmakers Union of the Russian Federation, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in India and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting India, Directorate of Film Festivals and IFFI.
