National Competition Nomination: from Animations to Historic Comedies

A press conference was held with the creative teams of the films participating in the National Competition nomination of the competition programme of the 14^th Kazan International Muslim Film Festival. Directors, producers and screenwriters shared the insights on filming and distribution of their works as well as their views on the development of cinema arts in the Republic of Tatarstan.

Leila Salakhutdinova, the script writer of Light of Faith said that it was filmed specifically for CinemaMawlid Balmay Production in cooperation with the mosque of Iman Nury. The main character is the head of a successful construction company, which suffers from complete confusion. The communication with Hazrat mosque helps him to re-evaluate his values. `The screening of the film was accompanied by an interactive performance. This is our creative experiment that we plan to continue with our new feature films`, said Leila Salakhutdinova.

A producer of the film Working Moment by Maria Makarova commented that it was a surprise for her, when the film, a diploma work of Vlada Vasilyeva based on the story by Victoria Tokareva was selected into the competition program of the Kazan International Muslim Film Festival: ` This is a story of a little boy, who finds himself in the world of cinematography and faces the issue of competition’, said Maria Makarova, adding that they are planning to submit the film for the festivals of youth and children films.

Daniil Faizrakhmanov copared his Claymation short film with a music video: `A red thread through the animation is the image of Victory train during the Second World War. The train was moving across Russia, connecting wounded, but not defeated soldiers with their loved ones`.

Director of the short film I Watch my Father's Dreams by Ramil Khadiullin read a poem by Boris Ryzhyi , containing the lines that formed the name of the picture. `Actually, today is the birthday of the poet`, he added.

`When we think about the future, we must remember the past, because history is our foundation. The first Secretary of the Tatar Regional Committee of the Communist Party Fikret Tabeev is a legendary person. His biography is a biography of our Republic`, said Yuriy Gvozd, the director of the film a Private Matter of Fikreta Tabeev devoted to the 90^th anniversary of this Soviet statesman.

The story of the comedy Yay directed by Aidar Gabdrakhmanov takes place in one of the Khanates of the Golden Horde. The film presents the story of two unsuccessful saboteurs from the Astrakhan Khanate heading to Kazan.

`The film combines several micro-stories and narratives centred in Kazan. Despite the fact that we did not pursue any political goals, the dialogues of the main historic characters reflect many recognizable current events. Therefore, the film could be considered as a parody of modern society`, said the film producer Albert Shakirov. ‘We plane to screen the film in the cities and towns of Tatarstan. I think, the film industry members in Tatarstan could work more with their target audience and only then attempt to enter the market. As for Yau, we decided to make distribution within our audience: Tatar population of the Republic and, perhaps, the countries of Central Asia and Turkey. I think our sense of humour will be close with them’, he added.

Yuri Gvozd supported the creators of Yau, noting that Tatar music and humour could help to develop a particular identity of Tatar cinematograph: ‘I really liked that a famous singer and a people's artist of Tatarstan Salavat Fatkhetdinov participated in shooting. I think more projects could be implemented using traditional music and humour of Tatars, the trend was quickly caught by the team of Yau’, added the director.

According to Maria Makarova, the key issue for the development of cinema arts in Tatarstan is the cooperation among filmmakers: `Thanks to the development of social networks, filmmakers from all over Russia are beginning to communicate more and more. It also helps to promote films. We need to continue our cooperation, engaging not only emerging filmmakers, but also professionals’.

The photo-report of the event is available here