A Russian war documentary is to be nominated for the most prestigious cinema award in the States – the Oscars.
The chronicle of World War II – referred to in Russia as the Great Patriotic War – is scheduled to compete in the Short Subject Documentary category. The film’s nomination was timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.
War: the Color of Time is not a traditional documentary as we know it. It does not feature narration, simply war chronicles and Soviet wartime songs. The idea behind the project was to show war as it was seen 70 years ago, in all its colors, horrors and moments of happiness.
The creators of this war tribute spent over 400 hours watching miles of archive film. Some 60 hours of wartime footage was picked out for further cutting and editing. The selected material was restored in an LA-based lab, and the colors recreate the atmosphere of the early 1940s. Each and every black-and-white shot was colored by hand and eventually made up a movie worthy of international appreciation.
The initiative came from the Russian company Formula of Color that is engaged in coloring classics of Soviet and Russian cinema.
The Academy Award’s terms say the movie must be screened in the States before being nominated. War: the Color of Time will on show in Los Angeles and New York for two weeks from August 15.
The Russian premiere of the film took place on June 22 this year.