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The Russian Film Festival 2010 is one of the biggest events being implemented in preparation for the 35th anniversary on June 2, 2011 of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of the Philippines.

The Festival is FREE to the public on March 26 & 27 at Ayala Onstage on a first-come, first-seated basis up to maximum theater capacity. The Films will have English subtitles.

Presented by Russia’s biggest film production company– Mosfilm Studios, with the Embassy of the Russian Federation, Film Development Council of the Philippines, Arts Council of Cebu Foundation, Ayala Center Cebu and the Philippines-Russia Friendship Society, Inc., the First Russian Festival will feature five (5) classical and contemporary films.

The Star (Russian: “Zvezda”) is a 2002 Russian film directed by Nikolai Lebedev, a large modern project of Mosfilm.

It is based on a short story of the same name by Emmanuil Kazakevich, about a group of Soviet scouts working behind enemy lines to find the location of the German armor forces during Operation Bagration in World War II.

The Mirror (Russian: “Zerkalo”;) is a 1975 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is loosely autobiographical, blending childhood memories, newsreel footage and poems by his father Arseny Tarkovsky.

The Mirror rhythmically combines contemporary scenes with childhood memories and newsreel footage. At various points in the film poems by Tarkovsky’s father are recited. The loose flow of visually oneiric images has been compared to the stream of consciousness technique in literature. Its complex yet simultaneously simple structure makes The Mirror one of Tarkovsky’s most difficult films, as well as his most personal.

The Vanished Empire takes place in the 1970s, when Soviet Russia started to stumble on the footsteps to global dominance – the Americans had put a man on the moon, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were breaking the music scene wide open, and productivity in Russia was faltering to the demands of the population.

Sergey Narbekov is a disaffected youth of some privelege and means– paid for by pawning his grandfather’s antiques.  He attends a state-sponsored equivalent to prep school. When he isn’t tuning out classes, Sergey is intent on impressing girls with his bootleg blue jeans and rock ‘n’ roll image .

Sergey woos newcomer Lyuda their romance takes a backseat to Sergey’s misadventures with friends Kostya, a diplomat’s son and bassist in an amateur rock band, and Styopa, a studious geek with a hidden mean streak. The three are always willing to stand up for each other in public, keeping their feuds and betrayals private.

Simultaneously nihilistic and heartening, Ward No. 6 is based on a story by Chekov, in which a psychiatric doctor becomes a patient in his own asylum. Updated to contemporary Russia, the film is a cocktail of anxieties and riddles, showcasing how easy it is to become what we fear most.

Agony tells the last days of madman-mystic, Rasputin. Russia, 1916. Be it by craft or madness, Rasputin exercises power over the indecisive Nicholas, and the religious Czarina who worships the Siberian as a Man of God. He manipulates the Czar in his relations with the Duma and influences the choice of a new premier.  A cadre of nobles take matters into their own hands and arrange a last dinner party for the interloping monk.

SCHEDULE:

March 26
7:30 pm     Screening “The Star”
9:15 pm      Film Discussion

March 27
12:00 pm   Mirror
2:30 pm      Vanished Empire
5:00 pm     Ward No. 6
7:30 pm     Agony

A photo exhibition will also be mounted for the duration of the festival to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s contributions to the Allied victory in the Second World War.