MIFF 2011: Moscow’s Programme Director, Kirill Razlogov: Big Programme, Big Ambitions

28-06-2011

MIFF 2011: Moscow’s Programme Director, Kirill Razlogov: Big Programme, Big Ambitions

By Anna Franklin

MOSCOW: Moscow International Film Festival (http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/eng/) programme director Kirill Razalogov cannot be accused of lacking ambition. He presides this year over a programme that can only be described as vast in both the number of films and its diversity. Over 400 films are being screened at this year's festival from every category of the audiovisual spectrum. Razlogov is one of Russia's leading film critics and cultural figures.

{mosimage}He was programme director of MIFF from 1999-2005 and returned to MIFF again in 2009. He spoke to FNE about what criteria shapes the selection of films and programmes and his ambitious plans for the festival's future.

FNE: There are a lot of films from central and eastern Europe in the main competition this year. Why is that??

Razlogov: We have chosen these films because they are interesting, not because they come from any particular country or region. There are two films from Poland, both of them very good, a Serbian film that is very optimistic and will have a lot of audience appeal, a film from Bulgaria that is also very optimistic and I believe will appeal to young audiences, two Russian films both of them completely different. We have a Georgian film this year, I'll Die Without You. There is the former Czech president Vaclav Havel's film Leaving. He really wanted to come but his health prevented this.

Central and Eastern European films have become very interesting recently. There were also a lot of films from central and Eastern Europe in last year's programme.
Films from this region were well known to Russian audiences in Soviet times but this connection was completely broken over the past 20 years and Russian audiences are only now rediscovering these cinematographies.

FNE: The programme of MIFF is vast. How many films are there and what is your philosophy behind the selection??

Razlogov: There are about 250 films in the main programme and about 150 Russian films. So about 400 films in total counting short films. We screen all the recent Russian features, documentaries, animation and a selection of shorts from the last year. We had over 700 entries from all over the world for our two short film programmes and we selected 30 to 40. For the internet short film competition we have 20 films.
My philosophy for selection is to be as diversified as possible. We screen as wide a range of films as possible. This year the opening film was a Hollywood blockbuster Transformers: Dark of the Moon and the closing film will be a small independent film. The programme should as much as possible cover the audiovisual scene as it is today.

I believe the majority of films in the main competition are very optimistic while the majority of films in our Perspectives Competition are rather pessimistic. This is good. It gives contrast. The programme is built on the principle of opposition. We show films that are diametrically opposed to each other. This avoids the monotony you sometimes get at big festivals.

FNE: With so many films no one can see them all. How should someone attending the festival choose what films to see??

Razlogov: This depends on what type of person it is. For film buffs we have the Cine Fantom programme and the Rob Nilsson retrospective would also appeal to them as well as the independent films in the Spanish and Italian programmes. For the person who likes art house we have Peter Shepotinnik's 8 and a half, the Werner Herzog and Sam Peckinpah retrospectives and the Italian and Spanish film programmes. For the regular spectator there are the gala premiers, opening and closing films and some of the Mir section. For those who like the exotic we have many exotic films from exotic countries. And for those who like trash we have sex films from Hong Kong ! This year we launched the Wild Nights programme which focuses on films that shock the audience. For those who like to indulge the senses for the second year we have the programme Sex, Food, Culture and Glory with films about the gastronomic and the sexual. In the Media Forum we screen video art.

FNE: How to you see the future of Moscow Festival??

Razlogov: The world's top festivals are Cannes, Venice and Berlin. In the next tier are Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, San Sebastian and Montreal. After that after that come all that other big A category festivals in a third tier. So Moscow competes for films with the festivals in the second tier. If a film has a chance to go to a tier one festival we lose if Moscow is competing for a film against a third tier festival we win.

Russia had over one billion USD at the box office last year. It has made a difference for us in attracting Hollywood blockbusters but not for art house films. There is almost no market for art house films in Russia. There is a market for European films in Russia, it's not very large but there is a market. There are two French films in the competition and a remake of a Russian film.

We are on the right way now with Moscow Festival. What we have to look at very carefully now is how to continue to establish a better reputation. I think we can take on Berlin Festival in future and maybe move into the third slot Maybe not in my lifetime - but we should shoot for this goal.