November 8 – 18, 2018 – WARSAW
November 2018 – April 2019 – other Polish cities
The 12th ‘Sputnik over Poland’ Russian Film Festival will be held on November 8-18, 2018 at the Warsaw cinemas – Luna, Elektronik and Iluzjon. Wider audience will have the opportunity to watch best Russian films at the reviews in numerous Polish cities from November to March 2019.
The leitmotif of this year’s Festival will be ‘art in a broad sense’. Theater, dance, literature, music, painting, sculpture, circus performing art, illusion … are the dominant themes that will accompany us at the 12th edition of the Festival. The program includes a new ‘Ale sztu(cz)ka!’ film section as well as film adaptations of outstanding Russian novels in the ‘Film Reading Room’. The program will also refer to folk tales and legends that still live vividly in Russian beliefs and traditions. We will reveal to the viewers the world of Slavic mermaids, forest nymphs, kikimoras, witch-healers and topielce spirits.
The core of the program will traditionally consist of two competition programs: Feature Film Competition and Documentary Film Competition. The films from the competition sections will also take part in the voting for the Audience Award. New Russian productions, including blockbusters of the last year have been included in the ‘New Cinema Kaleidoscope’. We would also like to commemorate great women, directors – Kira Muratova and Vera Glagoleva. ‘The best of Sputnik’ film section will give you an opportunity to catch up with previous years’ ‘must-sees’ by presenting the best titles of the past Festival editions. In cooperation with the Festival of Russian Films in Vyborg we will open the ‘Window to Europe: a coproduction program’. The fans of short films will find something of their interest in the block ‘In short’, which will present the etudes of the best film schools in Russia. ‘Little Sputnik’ will propose repertoires for three age groups: fairy tales for the youngest, big films for kids and movies for teenagers and entire families.
The screenings will be accompanied by numerous cultural events: concerts, exhibitions, performances, debates and workshops. We will invite Warsaw residents to the concert of the Russian duet ‘Aigel’, the unique show where minimalist electronic sounds are combined with strong lyrics by Kazan poet, vocalist Aygel Gaysina and electronic musician Ilya Baramiya. An interesting visual experience will certainly provide the exhibition of Soviet Bus Stops by Canadian photographer Christopher Herwig, who visited 14 countries of the former Soviet Union and created a gallery of old Soviet stops, often being real artworks. The 12th Sputnik will also offer workshops – Jew’s harp, calligraphic and culinary workshops of the Buryat cuisine. Together with the Academy of Photography we will organize a photo competition and a post-competition exhibition ‘The Art of Everyday Life’.