“Through the dialogue of cultures - to the culture of dialogue” - this phrase became from the first days of its existence the motto of the Kazan International Festival of Muslim Cinema, which, by the way, will be held this year for the 15th time. This year, the event will take place somewhat earlier than usual, from April 24th to 30th, within the framework of the KazanSummit. Milyausha Aytuganova, the executive director of the festival, told this at a press conference.
Just a few days ago, the festival's shortlist was announced, which included 55 films: there are 10 in the nominations of each “full-length game”, “full-length documentary”, “short-length game”, “short-length documentary”, and there are also 15 tapes in the nomination “National Competition ".
- The geography of films-participants in the 15th festival is extensive: these are European countries (France, Germany, Serbia, Portugal, Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and others), regions of Russia, the former USSR (Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and others), the USA, Turkey, Iran, countries of South Asia (Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh), Africa (Kenya, Morocco, Egypt). I would like to remind you, colleagues, ”Milyausha Aytuganova appealed to journalists,“ this year we chose a slightly different way of submitting applications, we decided to invite certain pictures of specific directors. We also draw your attention to the fact that this year our festival has somewhat shifted in time: the opening will take place on April 24th at the Tatar State Academic Theatre named after G. Kamala, and the closing will take place on April 30th at the «Hermitage» (GRK «Riviera»). The main venue of the festival is still GRK «Riviera».
Returning to the contestants, we note that one Tatarstan film “Baygal” by Ildar Yagafarov entered the key competition nomination “Full-length feature film”. The work of the Tatarstan director Leyla Salakhatdinova "Overtime" is nominated for prizes in the category "Short fiction film." Another film produced in Tatarstan, the full-length documentary film “Shihab Hazrat” by Salavat Yuzeev, entered the corresponding nomination. The list of nominees of the “National Competition” category includes 15 multi-genre paintings by Tatarstan directors: from the full-length feature film “Aquatic” by Alexey Barykin to the animated film “Seven Pearls” by Sergey Kiatrov.
- What is interesting, on the Kazan Expo site on the 25th, we will have a pitching of film projects within the framework of the XV Kazan International Muslim Film Festival, where the public presentation and protection of film projects (scenarios / script applications) will take place before the expert council in order to find individuals or organizations interested in project, in accordance with the time limit allocated to each project. This event will be held with the support of not only the forum KаzanSummit, but also with the active participation of the Investment Development Agency.
- Another interesting moment of the upcoming festival will be a retrospective photo exhibition dedicated to the history of the Festival and the development of Tatarstan cinema, which is 95 years old this year. As for the parallel programs, retrospectives by Eldar Ryazanov, Stanislav Govorukhin will be held in the cinema "Mir", the films-winners of previous festivals will be shown. We will pay special attention to the pictures that were released to the general public by graduates of VGIK (which, by the way, this year marks a hundred years).
By tradition, the Days of Korean, Tunisian and Serbian cinema will also be held. It will not do without the signing of agreements. This year it is planned to conclude as many as 8 agreements with such countries as Tajikistan, Great Britain, India, Bangladesh, Nepal. There are certain agreements with colleagues from Dagestan.
Let's remind that film experts Sergey Lavrentyev (chairman, program director), Nargiz Nureeva, Sergey Anashkin (Russia), Svetlana Slapke (Germany), Bootsuren Tuumen Ulziit (Mongolia), as well as the curator of the translation service, worked in the selection committee of the Kazan Film Festival-2019, Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Russian Islamic University Timur Shayhullin.
In the same year, films will be evaluated by a fundamentally new team. The famous Kazakh director, screenwriter, actor and producer, academician of the Russian Academy of Cinematographic Arts "Nika" Serik Aprymov became the chairman of the jury-2019. The jury also included screenwriter, film critic and director Zohra Zamani (Iran), screenwriter, producer and director Jovan Markovic (Serbia), film critic Hong Sang Wu (South Korea), film producer, director, director of the film festival "Religion Today" Andrea Morgen (Italy), writer, film producer, director of documentary films Sonya Westerhold (Denmark), director, screenwriter Mehmed Vahadyr Er (Turkey), film director, screenwriter, actor, film critic Amr Said Hasan Araf (Egypt), director, film critic, screenwriter Jevdet Tislik (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The only representative of Russia in the jury board of the festival-2019 will be film critic, author of documentary films of the Russia channel, member of the Guild of film critics and film critics of the Russian Federation Evelina Guretskaya.
Experts will evaluate 55 films of the competitive program in four main nominations (full-length fiction, short fiction, full-length documentary, short documentary), as well as the National Competition nomination (films produced by the Republic of Tatarstan or Tatarstan directors).
Let's remind that the founders of the Kazan International Festival of Muslim Cinema are: the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan, the administration of the city of Kazan, the Council of Muftis of Russia with the support of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov and in partnership with the group of strategic vision “Russia - the Islamic world”.
Ilmira Gafiyatullina