< TASS: DEBIZHEV’S CROSS TO OPEN ARCTIC OPEN IFF>
The 8th ARCTIC OPEN IFF has announced its opening film, TASS reports.
ARKHANGELSK, November 16. /TASS/. The film to open the VIII ARCTIC OPEN International Film Festival in Arkhangelsk, which will be held on December 5-8, is Cross, the documentary by Sergey Debizhev, festival director Tamara Statikova told TASS. This year’s non-competition program features a retrospective of Gunilla Bresky’s films (Sweden) entitled “Russia Played a Huge Role in My Evolution as Filmmaker”.
The Arctic Open team told TASS earlier their opener was the documentary People of Christ – Our Time by Serbian filmmakers, but they later said this film would not be screened.
“The opening film is Cross, a spectacular documentary by Sergey Debizhev,” said Statikova.
Journalist and filmmaker Gunilla Bresky made her debut documentary, Ekaterina The Junior, in Arkhangelsk in 1996. Now, her “Russian series” includes eight documentaries and one live action short film, united by the theme of little known pages and heroes of World War II. Dear Vera tells about the tragic fate of a female participant in the guerilla movement in a polar area, Blood Road about the Soviet prisoners of war on a railroad construction site in Norway, Night Witches about the legendary female pilots in Night Bomber Regiment. The retrospective also includes I Stop Time about the renowned wartime cameraman Vladislav Mikosha, and A Grey Blanket With Embroidered Flowers, which tells a story of a woman in Northern Norway, who, together with her husband, joined the resistance struggle against fascism; her husband was executed and she herself sent to a concentration camp in Germany where she began to embroider a blanket with the flags of the countries of her fellow sufferers.
One more film, We Are Still Here (2024, Sweden), is about a group of Sámi artists who settled in the northern village of Máze in the late 1970s and started to exhibit their paintings to celebrate their cultural identity.
Also, this year’s non-competition program features a presentation of Sverdlovsk Film Studio and two of its recent releases – Razezd, which follows a cultured sales assistant in a second-hand bookstore, and Bernaki, a comedy film about a man who got his forehead tattooed with the logo of this company. Screenings of films by the jury members will be held in Arkhangelsk. Another highlight is the documentary The Ghosts of Jeju by American filmmaker Regis Trembley about the struggle of the people of Jeju Island (South Korea) against construction of a military base. The short film jury chairman Vladimir Kott will present his film Man and Woman, a series of touching stories of men and women who crossed one another’s paths – some for years, some for an hour, some for just minutes.
About ARCTIC OPEN IFF
The International Film Festival ARCTIC OPEN will take place in Arkhangelsk on December 5-8, bringing to its audiences in Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk, Novodvinsk, Nyandoma, Kargopol and Ustyany the latest releases from independent filmmakers from across the globe, as well as filmmakers themselves – actors, directors and film crew members.
A socio-cultural project run by BEREGINYA Pomor Culture Foundation, “The KinoArchipelago: 8th International Film Festival ARCTIC OPEN” is financially supported by the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, Arkhangelsk Governor Center, and Arkhangelsk Ministry of Culture, and is co-organized by M.V. Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University.
NEWS ON TASS WEBPAGE 16.11.2024
