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 Join TIM MILFULL as he journeys metaphorically east to investigate the Eurasian fare on display as part of the RUSSIAN RESURRECTION FILM FESTIVAL, taking place soon at Palace Centro Cinemas.
Festival freaks, fear not! In the wake of the Lavazza Italian Film Festival and Dendy’s dip into Indian cinema last week, more world cinema is on its way, with the Russian Resurrection Film Festival 08 from November 6-12, and the 2008 Hola Mexico Film Festival starting in the second week of December. I’ll be writing more about Mexican fare in a coming issue, but I recently managed to catch a few Russian previews.
Opening Night film, The Vanished Empire, is being billed as a very personal vision of the Cold War superpower at the peak of its world dominance in the early seventies. At the time, director Karen Shakhnazarov would have been the same age as the protagonists in this story of empire and personal transition, and the archaeological metaphors of decline and loss are particularly poignant. Sergei (Aleksandr Lyapin) is an easily distracted technical college student who prefers planning his next blackmarket purchase of Rolling Stones albums or Levis jeans. His best friend Stepan (Yegor Baranovski) is a little more careful about how he spends his time, and his introspective, considered nature eventually brings him into conflict with Sergei.
 In an unidentified Russian city, Valery Todorovsky’s Vice sees a naïve bunch of ravers become mixed up in the Russian underworld. Denis (Maksim Matveev) is an idealistic young DJ, who turns his back on the idea of spinning platters in Moscow clubs. He returns to his hometown, where his beautiful girlfriend Masha (Ekaterina Vilkova) offers to sort out their financial woes. Denis has other ideas, however, and when he and his dopey mates boost a car for the drugs hidden inside, the trio soon finds themselves caught up in an uneasy pact with Verner (Fyodor Bondarchuk) a local drug-dealer who is looking to break into the music industry. This slickly produced film features some excellent music, and some very effective filming and editing.
 My favourite of the three previews was Alexei Uchitel’s Captive, a tense thriller set in the Chechen mountains. Vyacheslav Krikunov plays the brooding Russian foot soldier Rubakha, who, with his diminutive, loud-mouthed best friend Vovka (Pyotr Logachev) is sent by their commander on a hike back to their base at the foot of the mountains. They’re to bring reinforcements back to a convoy that has been marooned by a rebel attack. En route, the pair is recruited into a counterattack that ambushes a rebel platoon. Rubakha and Vovka are charged with escorting a young Chechen fighter Djamal (Irakli Mskhalai) back to base. But the soldiers need a guide to reach the convoy, and rather than surrender Djamal to a rather lecherous commander, they sneak away into the forest. The men make an interesting trio, with the bloody-minded Vovka posing a constant threat to Djamal, while the lumbering Rubakha concedes a grudging respect for his enemy. Director Uchitel keeps his audience constantly on edge throughout Captive, and finishes on a climactic and distressing note.
The RUSSIAN RESURRECTION FILM FESTIVAL 08 takes place Nov 6-12 at Palace Centro Cinemas. For more information about this rich and exciting festival, visit www.russianresurrection.com
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