The 21st international film festival “Spirit of Fire” has opened in Khanty-Mansiysk, and Serbian director Emir Kusturica has become its president this year. The festival will last four days, during which the audience will be shown more than 70 films from 16 countries, including France, Argentina, Japan, China and India.
According to Kusturica, directorial debut festivals are of great importance for the film industry. “The big film festivals of the world no longer glorify the author – they glorify the “project”. And independent cinema shows the human soul, talks about the issues of life. As long as there are such events, art will not die,” he stressed.
The main topic of the film forum this time is the indigenous peoples of the world. Several paintings will be in Altaic, Kabardian, Chechen and Finno-Ugric languages. The best Russian film in the nomination “For the Preservation of Cultural Traditions” will receive a special award from Gazprom Neft, the general partner of the film festival.
Alexander Dybal, a member of the company’s board, said that Gazprom Neft has been implementing projects in Yugra for many years that improve the quality of people’s lives. “The Spirit of Fire Festival has become not only the most important local cultural event, but has been making Khanty-Mansiysk a part of international cinematic life for many years,” he stressed.
The International Film Festival “Spirit of Fire” has been held since 2003 by the government of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra. The Governor of the region Natalya Komarova noted that the region is actively expanding its opportunities in the field of film production. “We are creating a system to support these projects and new programs for the development of young talents,” she said at the opening ceremony.
Among the famous films that started at the film forum are “Boomer”, “Italian”, “How Vitka Chesnok drove Lekha Shtyr to the nursing home.”
