New film festival born at Nowruz in Kazan
The cinematographic community of Tatarstan has had a new film festival. International Turkic Cinema Festival dedicated to Turkic New Year and spring equinox – Nowruz – opened in Mir cinema on 21 March. Realnoe Vremya tells the details of the film festival's opening ceremony.
Welcome in different languages
Young people in national costumes – members of national and cultural communities of the Tatarstan House of Peoples' Friendship – were standing in line at the entrance to Mir cinema's hall. The very opening ceremony, which took place in the hall, took more than an hour. The same members of national and cultural communities opened it by welcoming the audience in different languages.
Opening the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan Guzel Sharipova noticed that all spheres of Turkic countries' culture had many things in common, including in cinematography. This is why the films that cinematographers brought to the festival will be close to the audience.
It's obvious that to show the community of not only with Turkic people, the group Kazan Boys performed the song Mother Tongue in three languages at once – Tatar, Russian and English.
The festival is, first of all, cinematographers' holiday. Chairman of the professional Union of Cinematographers and director Ildar Yagafarov noticed that Tatarstan's cinema was gathering speed. For instance, 10 full-length films have been compiled since the beginning of the year. But for cinematographers, it's important to not only shoot films, audience must see them, and the film festival is a good opportunity to acquaint spectators with novelties.
Delegations from Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan came to the opening of the International Turkic Cinema Festival to Kazan. The Russian federation is represented by cinematographers from Tatarstan, Chuvashia, Bashkortostan, Dagestan. As the delegation of cinematographers of Turkey was the biggest, and it was the only delegation that didn't understand the Russian language, the whole opening ceremony was translated into Turkish. And new Consul of Turkey in Tatarstan Ahmet Sadık Doğan wished luck to the festival and even pronounced several phrases in Tatar – he is intensively learning the language now.
Bibinur leads off
If speaking of the history of origin of the International Turkic Cinema Festival, we need to notice that the idea to create it arose in Istanbul at a meeting of the Turkish World Cinema Association. Director General of Tatarcinema Milyausha Aytuganova represents Tatarstan in this organisation.
The festival will become annual but migrate and take place in a new country every year. But it was decided to start its life in Tatarstan that has been hosting the Kazan International Muslim Cinema Festival, which became popular not only in Turkic-speaking countries, for more than 10 years already.
But unlike the Kazan Muslim film forum, the new festival's format doesn't presuppose either a jury or awards. The majority of its sessions will be in Mir cinema's hall, residents of Tatarstan districts will see part of the films where the festival's films will be demonstrated. Apart from films, the programme promises meetings with cinematographers, which will be in Tatarstan House of Peoples' Friendship.
''We hope spectators from other countries including Turkey will watch the films Kazan citizens will see at the festival. Spectators will see unique films of the Turkic world created even in the USSR. So many people can remember their youth,'' noticed director of Tatarcinema Milyausha Aytuganova.
Yury Feting's Bibinur – a popular film not only in Tatarstan – was chosen as a lead-off film. After Bibinur, spectators saw a film of Turkish cinematographers The Girl with the Red Scarf – a screen version of Chinghiz Aitmatov's Red Scarf. Several festival films will be demonstrated in Mir cinema's hall every day from 21 to 25 March.
The film forum's guests will have a big culture programme that includes a trip to ancient Bolgar and participation in Nowruz on the territory of the Kazan Hippodrome.
