Russian film to open new Horizons in Venice

Venice’s Orizzonti, the program aimed at exploring contemporary cinema and new experimental approaches in filmmaking, is to screen a Russian film, Birmingham Ornament.

­The film, made by director Andrey Silvestrov together with artist Yury Leiderman, raises anthropological questions and deals with metaphors and symbols. A good example of what is called “the other cinema” in Russia, the “new avante-garde”, as opposed to mainstream, incorporates both an artistic experiment and a refined cinematographic language.

Silvestrov and Leiderman began filming about five years ago in Birmingham, UK. What started as random film fragments eventually turned into an experimental movie project. According to the director, this diverse multinational city, and the relations between various ethnic communities there prompted the film’s title.

“[The project] consists of many different fragments. Each of them seems to us as a self-sufficient work of art. Some of the fragments were separately displayed on various festivals and art exhibitions. But the experiment of uniting separate fragments into one film was undertaken for the first time. We discovered that it revealed a new meaning…” director Andrey Silvestrov told RIA Novosti news agency.

Silvestrov says that fragments previously displayed to public have not been included into the film that is due to be screened in Venice, while some changes are still being made to the final work.

The Russian film is listed as a special event within Orizzonti program of the 68th Venice Film Festival and will be screened out of competition.

Leave a comment