The first ever Russian Film Festival in Malaysia will be showing from 18th till 21st of December, 2008 at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. It is organized by Russian Centre of Science and Culture and Embassy of the Russian Federation in Malaysia. Russian film festival is going to be a retrospective of best award-winning Russian films “The Barber of Siberia”, “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears”, “Tchaikovsky”, “Shakespeare Did Not Even Dream About It”, “The Cranes Are Flying”. Festival is aimed at familiarizing Malaysian public with Russian cinema celebrating centenary of its birth this year. There will be five films shows at Plenary Theatre, West Wing Level 3. All Films are demonstrated with English subtitles. Admission free. We invite you to have fun at Russian Film Festival. For more information please call 21444266.

Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Plenary Theatre

Film shows

Festival Poster

18 Dec 19:30 The Barber of Siberia 19 Dec 19:30 Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears 20 Dec 15:00 Tchaikovsky 20 Dec 19:30 The Barber of Siberia 21 Dec 15:00 Shakespeare Could Never Imagine 21 Dec 19:30 The Cranes are Flying

Annotations

The Barber of Siberia

Genre: drama, historical
Director: Nikita Mikhalkova
Cast: Oleg Menshikov, Julia Ormond, Alexei Petrenko, Richard Harris, Anna Mikhalkova
Release date: 1999

The film’s action takes place over a hundred years ago, during the rule of Alexander III. “The Barber of Siberia” is a steam-engined, self-propelling saw-mill for manufacturing of which the dreamer and adventurist McCracken (Richard Harris) tries to get a commission from appropriate Russian state authorities. Jane (Julia Ormond) is dispatched to help McCracken in the disguise of his daughter who would blackmail the officials of the Commission on Technical Innovations. On her way she meets Cadet Andrey Tolstoy (Oleg Menshikov) and his comrades. Jane’s Moscow target is to be the head of the cadet school General Radlov (Alexei Petrenko) who also happens to be Deputy Chairman of the Commission. The General gets enamored with the beautiful foreigner. However, her love preference is Andrey. The latter, with the fervor typical of a Russian officer, reciprocates. The showdown takes place in the theatre. Andrey, playing the part of Figaro in a student production of “The Barber of Seville”, overcome by jealousy, attacks Radlov directly from the stage. Unfortunately for Andrey, the performance is attended by Czarevich Mikhail and Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, and Tolstoy ends up being accused of an attempt on their lives. The shackled former cadet is sent to Siberia, followed there by his servant Dunyasha (Anna Mikhalkova) who is madly in love with him. Will Andrey ever see Jane and… his son?

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

Genre: melodrama Director: Vladimir Menshov Cast: Vera Alentova, Alexei Batalov, Irina Muravyova, Raissa Ryazanova Release date: 1979 An Oscar winner for “best foreign film”. This is a melodrama about the life stories of the three girls. Three friends, Antonina, Liudmila and Yekaterina, come to Moscow in search of their dream. Sharing a hostel room, they work and play together. Antonina soon marries a good man and settles down to raise a family. For Liudmila, Moscow is a sort of lottery, in which you have to pick the lucky ticket. She attempts to conquer the big city, but ends up a loser. The life of the third girl, Yekaterina, is a contemporary Cinderella story. She had her share of disappointments, but did not despair. In twenty years she built up a career and became the director of a big enterprise. A single parent of a daughter, she finally meets the right man and, after long and bitter years of loneliness, finds true happiness…

Tchaikovsky

Genre: drama, historical
Director: Igor Talankin
Cast: Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Antonina Shuranova, Yevgheny Leonov
Release date: 1969

The film is dedicated to the great Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). It tells of the last twenty years of the great master’s life, of his friendship with Baroness von Meck, an outstanding woman of her time, who for many years was Tchaikovsky’s guardian angel. The film also includes retrospection of the composer’s childhood and adolescent years, with Tchaikovsky’s life poetically recounted against the background of fragments from his operas and ballets performed by the best Russian musicians.

Shakespeare Could Never Imagine

Genre: comedy
Director: Alexei Zernov
Cast: Anastasia Zavorotnyuk, Garik Kharlamov, Sergey Zhigunov, Olga Prokofyeva, Yuri Stoyanov, Boris Smolkin, Tatyana Kravchenko
Release date: 2007

A hilarious musical comedy based upon old Russian vaudevilles. After a failed attempt at robbery, a gang of swindlers are ready to pose as anybody.
At that very time, a provincial town had long been waiting for the arrival of a touring troupe of famous actors. Thanks to good fortune and their own ingeniousness, the swindlers manage to take advantage of that chance… By some magic, the gang is transformed into the big-city superstars; however, already during rehearsals the theatre’s manager begins to entertain doubts as to the authenticity of the “artistes”.
The fledgling actors-adventurers have troubles of their own, the only “primadonna” suddenly falls in love and elopes with a young Hussar. The performance has been announced for tonight, the tickets are sold out…

The Cranes are Flying

Genre: drama Director: Mikhail Kalatozov Cast: Tatiana Samoilova, Alexei Batalov Release date: 1957 The triumphant success of this film started with its winning the first prize at the Cannes festival in 1958, where an excellent acting by Tatiana Samoilova was also recognized. After that the picture was welcomed in numerous world’s movie theatres. This is a story of love that could not be destroyed even by war. Boris is felled by an enemy’s bullet in action. Veronica is devastated: she has lost her lover, her parents, her home. As an act of despair, she attempts to find a new family for herself, but only loses her self-respect. She is finally redeemed by rescuing a little boy from being run down by a car. She finds strength to continue living, refusing to believe that Boris is dead. Veronica would not stop waiting for him. Life for her is love, and its loss is equivalent to death…