MOSCOW, January 23 /TASS/. Sunstroke, a new film by celebrated Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov, has won the Russian Golden Eagle Award in the Best Film of the Year nomination. The award ceremony took place at the Mosfilm studios in Moscow on Friday.

“We tried to make these pictures for 37 years. We did not know that it would be so relevant today because it tells about totally different things. Two years ago we shot it in Odessa. That Odessa no longer exists,” the film director said.

Mikhalkov also said that the competition had been tough and that he had very serious and decent rivals for the main nomination. “It is the first time that it was that way. Previously, it was more or less clear,” he added.

He thanked his team and the audience who had seen his film, which was released in Russia in October and was later shown on TV. A Moscow cinema house has resumed the run at numerous requests from viewers.

Mikhalkov’s Sunstroke had been nominated in six categories. On October 3, 2014 the film was shown in the Serb capital Belgrade for the very first time. The first performance in Russia took place in Crimea. The roles are played by young artists. Mikhalkov appears on the screen only once and only on a photograph of the main character’s deceived husband.

Mikhalkov’s new film is based on the story Sunstroke and the book Cursed Days (Okayaniye Dni) by Nobel Prize-winning Russian writer Ivan Bunin. The film director raised the idea for the film in the early 1980s, but he got the final version of the screenplay finished not earlier than 2010. The shooting started in mid-2012.

The Golden Eagle Award is an accolade by the National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of Russia to recognize the excellence of professionals in the film industry, directors, actors and writers.