MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. The Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic will support the release of Yakutia's Oscar nominee movie - Haulout, Minister Alexey Chekunov told TASS.
A short documentary by Maxim and Evgenia Arbugaev from Yakutia was among the Oscar nominees in the category Best Short Documentary. Other nominees in this category also featured India's Elephant Whisperers, 2022, and movies from the US: How do you measure a Year?, 2021, The Martha Mitchell Effect, 2022, and Stranger at the Gate, 2022.
"Taking into account the current situation with the limited repertoire of foreign films, here emerge new opportunities for Russian movies. In the category of serious and documentary movies, I am sure, Russian, and especially Far Eastern, Northern movies - and Houlout is both - will have their loyal viewers. We will promote the release and distribution of this movie in the Far East and the Arctic and throughout the country," the minister said.
When speaking about new opportunities for domestic movie production in the current conditions, the minister mentioned Cheburashka, which was released in Russia on January 1 and became the highest-grossing movie in the history of domestic distribution. As for Haulout, the minister continued, such films, highly praised by the international community, have to be successful in this country.
"At the Far Eastern Creative Week, which is due in Vladivostok soon, we will pay special attention to development of movie production in the Far East," he concluded.
Haulout was produced amid the pandemic. The movie tells about the field season of marine biologist Maxim Chikalev on the Arctic Ocean coast in Chukotka. For ten years, the Northern fauna researcher has been observing the largest walrus rookery on the planet.
Filmmaking and Yakutia
The movie's Director Maxim Arbugaev told TASS about a few projects and ideas for the future. "The priority is to finish the movie with the working title "Summer will End". We plan [the release] closer to the summer," he said. Maxim Arbugayev has been working with Director from Yakutia Vladimir Munkuyev ("Nuuccia", 2021). This movie will be Arbugaev's debut in a feature movie.
Yakutia's Minister of Culture and Spiritual Development Yuri Kupriyanov told TASS, the theme of the Haulout movie echoes the problem Yakutia has been facing - the global warming. "Yakutia is a small region in terms of the number of people, and the feeling of patriotism, love for the homeland and respect for every fellow countryman is sincere, amazing and very big. The Yakut filmmaking is a large family of people who live in Yakutia, who have grown up in Yakutia and absorbed the Yakut origin. And in case the international community recognizes the movie, it would mean a new level, a new page in the development and understanding of the Yakut filmmaking," he said.