Cold of Kalandar wins at Kazan Film Festival
The closing ceremony of Kazan International Festival of Muslim Cinema took place in the Tatar State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Musa Jalil. The main prize of the festival was given to the Turkish-Hungarian film Cold of Kalandar. What is more, the jury's decision was unanimous. Read the details in the report of Realnoe Vremya.
A catwalk show with prizes
Despite heavy rain, near the opera theatre there was spread the traditional red carpet, along which there walked the honorary guests of the festival held in Kazan for the thirteenth time. The hall was already full when the speaker of the Tatarstan parliament Farid Mukhametshin entered the hall accompanied by Minister of Culture Ayrat Sibagatullin. However, even after that the ceremony did not begin, apparently they were waiting for being late Viktor Merezhko. He was in no hurry to take his seat and embracing for a long time with sitting in the same row Viktor Garkalin.
Finally, everyone took their seats, on stage there came up three masters of the ceremony — charming actor of the Kamal theatre Iskander Khairullin and his equally charming partners Anna Snatkina and Liya Shaydarova. It should be noted that the ceremony they led very intelligently and witty.
At the very beginning, they showed the prizes of the festival — beautiful figurines with the image of Suyumbike tower covered with film strip. The girls from the state ensemble of song and dance of Tatarstan presented the prizes at a catwalk in national costumes.
The speaker of the parliament Farid Mukhametshin came on stage to award the first prize, the prize of the President of Tatarstan. He noted that the Kazan festival is recognized in the world, and if the first fest received 40 applications from 12 countries, this year applications were 782 from 61 countries. ''Of course, there has appeared the tradition that makes a significant contribution to strengthening cultural ties with the Islamic world, and it is an event not only for Tatarstan but for the entire Russian Federation as a whole country,'' said Farid Khayrullovich.
The prize, which was established by the president of Tatarstan, was awarded for ''Humanism in cinema art''. It was awarded to the short feature film by young Tatarstan director Ilshat Rakhimbay Imagine!. As chairperson of the selection committee Sergey Lavryentyev told at a press conference, ''this is typical Tatarstan cinema, this is the story that can be seen only in Tatarstan''. The plot of the film tells the story of two brothers living in the neighbouring villages. One of them is an Orthodox priest, the second is a mullah.
Another Tatarstan film was awarded the prize of the mayor of Kazan. It is The Unsent Letters by a young Tatarstan director Rustam Rashitov, who, receiving the award, noted that ''our film is about love, and love will save the world''.
The constellation of young people
In general, Tatarstan cinema distinguished itself at this festival. It is worth noting the success of Yulia Zakharova, received the award of Guild of film critics, the traditional white elephant, for the film Khalima. The prize was awarded with the wording ''for brave choice of topics ideally appropriate to the theme of the festival''.
In the category of Tatarstan cinema the award for best documentary film was awarded to Almaz Nuggaleyev for the film Nazhiba about an actress of the Kamal theater Nazhiba Iksanova, Valeria Girenko for the best film for children Diagnosis about her dog, Oksana Senchukova for the film Prodigal Son and Sergey Kiatrov for the animated film The Arrow of Heritage.
The last award caused a slight confusion. Of course, the film by Kiatrov deserves awards, but is it logical to put in the same category feature and animated films? Probably not. I want to believe that in the future of the festival the nomination of Tatarstan cinema will be in a more differentiated way.
All stars
The awards alternated with concert performances. On the stage there came Dina Garipova, Andrey Sokolov, Kirill Safonov, the ensemble of accordion players, but the furor was made by ''young Romeo'' — our prodigy Arslan Sibgatullin, by the way, the son of an actress Guzel Sibgatullina, who played the main female role in the film The Unsent Letters, and it was one of the best festival works this year.
Arslan, who went on stage already in character, read Romeo's soliloquy very touchily, and the audience exploded with applause. ''What are you doing, I nearly cried!'' exclaimed Anna Snatkina and kissed the young artist, who is expanding the repertoire, adding to his crown Hamlet's soliloquy now the monologue by young Montague.
The ceremony lasted for almost three hours, when they came to the main awards. Quite unusual was the award in the category ''The best female role''. This time, it was awarded to the ensemble of actresses for the film Women's Day by Egyptian filmmakers. The best performer of the male role was recognized Dulige Akmolde for the role in the Kazakh film Oralman. The best director was recognised Mangesh Joshi from India for the film Lathe Joshi.
The best operator was recognized the operator who shot the film Sofichka, the best script — the script of the film Amun. Finally, on the stage there came a director Nikolay Dostal, chairperson of the jury, who noted that the Kazan festival works at the level of the best festivals in the world. He announced the best film of the Kazan International Festival of Muslim Cinema this year. It is the film Cold of Kalandar directed by Mustafa Kara, the work of Turkish and Hungarian filmmakers. According to Dostal, the jury was unanimous about this film.
