The festival, which is part of the Budapest Autumn Festival, will show nine Russian feature films and several shorts. The Toldi Cinema will offer simultaneous interpretation of the films it shows into Hungarian, while the Cirko-Gejzír will show them with English subtitles. Special guests will include director Alexei German Sr. and several Hungarian filmmakers who will help audiences get a better understanding of contemporary Russian cinema, which is renowned for breaking with convention and shattering taboos.
Tractor Drivers directed by Igor Aleinikov and Gleb Aleinikov will be shown on the first day of the festival, before the opening ceremony. It is the first adaptation of a highly successful Russian film made in 1939. The result is a post-modern comedy about the changed world.
Boris Khlebnikov's film Free Floating deals with unemployment, a phenomenon quite common in the post-Soviet era. The main character, Leonid, is laid off after the factory he works at is shut down. The change forces him to look not only for a new job, but to grow up and face the reality of life in Russia.
The Spot by director Yuri Moroz shows the lives of three prostitutes in Moscow. They come from different backgrounds but find themselves in the same rut, facing the harsh rules of a hard world. Nobody can expect a happy ending here.
The Rabbit over the Void by director Tigran Keosayan is a film which starts out as a fairytale set in Moldavia in around 1971. A poor musician proposes to the beautiful daughter of the local Gypsy chief and the father approves the marriage on one condition, that Leonid Brezhnev, who is visiting the region at the time of the wedding, be invited.
Koktebel is the name of a holiday resort and Roads to Koktebel was chosen as the title of a film by directors Boris Khlebnikov and Alexei Popogrebski. After the death of his wife, a father decides to travel with his son to the seaside town and begin a new life. Mourning, women and the struggle with drugs and alcoholism accompany him on the way.
Director Kirill Serebrennikov's film Playing the Victim is the story of Valya, who drops out of university and takes a job with the police, where his task is to play the victim.
Khrustalyov, My Car!, by director Alexei German, revisits the "doctor trials" under Stalin, when the Russian leader had Jewish physicians tried on trumped-up charges.
The Last Train by Alexei German Jr. is a WWII miracle story based on real events about a train of deportees. It offers a new Russian perspective on the war.
4 - Four by director Ilya Khrzhanovsky and with a screenplay by the writer Vladimir Sorokin played to great acclaim at Budapest's Titanic Film Festival last year.
Author: Sisso
