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KAZAN, August 1 (Itar-Tass) — The Commission of the VII International Festival of Muslim Cinema that will be held in Kazan on September 6 – 11, has completed the selection process. Of 300 films offered for the contest, 40 best motion pictures from 20 countries have been selected, the festival’s programme director Ilshat Latypov told Itar-Tass.
“Another 25 films will be presented out of competition,” he noted. “Twenty 20 full-length feature films, 14 short feature films, 13 full-length documentaries and 18 short documentaries will be shown at the best cinema houses of Kazan – Grand Cinema, Korston and Mir.
The geography of the festival participants is wide – Azerbaijan, Great Britain, Greece, Egypt, India, Palestine, the United States and France.
Turkey is leading by the number of the presented works – 7 movies. The commission, headed by famous Russian film critic Sergei Kudryavtsev, has selected for the competition five movies by Iranian directors, three movies from Russia, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan each. For the first time taking part in the festival are films by directors from China, Estonia, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, The Philippines, Belgium and Slovenia.
“The main criterion for the selection of movies was their artistic value,” Kudryavtsev noted. “However, in the process of the film show the general trend of the works’ theme was determined – it is the search for home, for something own, akin.” The film critic means by the word “home” “both the relationship of close people in the narrow sense and in the broader sense a country, state, or even the whole world.”
The festival under the motto “Through the dialogue of cultures to the culture of dialogue” was founded in 2005 in honour of the 1000th anniversary of Kazan. A total of 51 films from 28 countries were presented at the VI film festivals in 2010.
Kazan International Festival of Muslim Cinema has been held in the Republic of Tatarstan since 2005. The first festival was organised by the initiative of Russian Council of Muftis, Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography of Russian Federation, Ministry of Cultural Affairs of Tatarstan with the support of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, according to the festival’s press release.
The goals of the festival are the experience exchange between people of culture and art of Russia and the countries of the near and far abroad, the demonstration of Muslim moviemakers achievements, as well as the achievements of the representatives of other religions, who make movies and popularise human moral and ethic cultural values, the creation of true-to-life idea of Islam and Moslem in Russian and world community.
The promoters are the Ministry of Cultural Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Administration of Kazan. The festival is held under the supervision of President of the Republic of Tatarstan. Screening committee and jury consists of outstanding filmmakers, movie directors from all over the world.
Every year the number of participants and competing movies is growing. The 1st festival included 40 movies from 12 countries, whereas the 5th festival included 400 movies from 67 countries.
The programme of the Festival involves movies that reflect human moral and ethic values and cultural traditions and ideas of peacekeeping, tolerance and humanism irrespective of the author confession.
The festival awards are:
9 figurines in order of nominations; the special award of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan for humanism in art; the special award of international organisation “Turksoy”; the special award of Russian guild of film experts and movie critics.
The festival includes the following activities: competitive and non-competitive film demonstrations; master classes with people of cinematography; creative meetings with festival participants; press conferences; roundtables; the days of cinema of participating country; gala exhibitions of Islamic fashion.
The honourable guests of the festival have been Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Adjani, Mark Dacascos, Aydan Sener, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Armand Assante, Azizolla Khamidnezade, Iya Ninidze, Nikita Mikhalkov, Eldar Ryazanov, Yevgeny Mironov, Margarita Terekhova, Aristarkh Livanov, Aleksandr Mitta, Igor Petrenko, Alla Surikova, etc.
Traditionally the festival is covered by both leading Russian and international mass media, including Itar-Tass, TV-channels Rossiya, NTV, state television and radio broadcasting companies New Century, Tatarstan, Kazan-Star, The fifth channel, newspapers Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Izvestiya, Kommersant. Among international sources there are the channels Russia Today, Еuronews, American Image Press, Polish newspaper Wyborcza, Japanese State TV-channel NHK, German newspaper Altabash, Ukrainian newspaper “Telecity”, Azerbaijani First Information Agency, Iran State TV-channel TV-4, Egyptian news agency Nile, Turkish magazine DA, information agency Ihlas, inter-Arabic newspapers Al shark Al ausat and Al Ahram, magazine Al Mussavvar, mass-media of Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and others.
The winner of the first festival was moviemaker Vladimir Khotinenko. His movie “Moslem”, shot in 1995, was the pattern of cinematographic embodiment of the main idea of the festival, according to the organizers. The winners of Kazan International Festival of Muslim Cinema in different years were movies “Magician” by Oktay Mir-Kasym (Azerbaijan), “Tear of Cold” by Azizolla Khamidnizade (Iran), “Baba Aziz” by Nacer Khemir”(France – Germany- Tunisia – Hungary – Iran – Great Britain), “Mi for mother” by Rasul Mollagolipura (Iran), “Dzhodha and Akbar” by Ashutosha Govarikhera (India), “One war” by Vera Glagoleva (Russia).
The Kazan International Festival of Muslim Cinema has become a serious stimulus for the development of Tatarstan cinematography. At the 1st festival the main character of Tatarstan movie “Kuktau” by Ildar Yagafarov – Farit Bikchantaev – was awarded with the best actor prize. At the 3rd festival the movie “Dilemma” by Ramil Tukhvatullin got the People’s Choice Award. The movie “Three-legged horse” by Nouralia Zamaleeva was awarded for the best camerawork at the 4th Kazan International Festival of Muslim Cinema. At the 5th festival in Tatarstan 10 movies were presented.