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Russian Resurrection film festival kicks off in Australia

Adding this year’s program includes six new films shot by Russian directors

SYDNEY, December 11. /TASS/. One of the world’s largest festival of Russian films abroad kicked off in Sydney, its organizing committee told TASS on Saturday, adding this year’s program includes six new films shot by Russian directors.

The Russian Resurrection film festival, which has been held in major Australian cities for 18 years, will present a scaled-down program of only six movies this year.

"Regrettably, the pandemic has had a very dramatic impact on us. This year, the festival could not attract enough advertisers, and we could not get grants from the Australian authorities, the Russian Culture Ministry and the Russkiy Mir (Russian World) Foundation. Nevertheless, in my opinion, we still managed to organize a very compelling program for our viewers, which features very different films by Russian directors," festival director Nikolai Maksimov told TASS.

Russian Ambassador to Australia Alexei Pavlovsky indicated the indisputable need for such events.

"Learning about modern Russian films gives Australians a chance to shape a more unbiased perception of our country, free from the imposed propaganda stereotypes and primitive clich·s," he stressed.

The 2021 Russian Resurrection film festival will feature Gleb Panfilov’s war drama ‘101 Minutes’ based on the novel by Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn ‘Ivan Denisovich’, the moving drama ‘A Dog Named Palma,’ biopic ‘Doctor Liza’, Aleksey Gherman Jr.’s arthouse drama ‘House Arrest’, sports drama ‘On the Edge and comedy ‘The Servant.’

It is no exaggeration to say that the Russian Resurrection film festival is one of Australia’s most vibrant cultural events. According to Maksimov, each autumn Australian cinema lovers look forward to the announcement of its lineup, but in 2021 that was changed due to the pandemic and the restrictions imposed by the Australian authorities.

"We had to postpone the timeframe of the festival due to the outbreak in Sydney, so our screenings came very close to the Christmas festive period and school summer vacations (December 20-January 30 - TASS), but we believe that our regular viewers, and there are many of them, will still find time and opportunity for contemporary Russian movies," Maksimov said.

The Russian Resurrection film festival will run until December 19 in four cities in Australia, namely in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.