Russian Around

Now in its 11th year, the Russian Resurrection Film Festival is heading to New Zealand for the first time. “It probably was the next step to take with the festival, but at the same time we also received – probably about two or three years running – requests from the Russian embassy in New Zealand, to see if we would be able to do something similar over there,” says Maksymow.

Maksymow created the festival out a desire to share his Russian heritage, spurred on by the success of the Australian premiere of 2002 historical drama Russian Ark he helped to organise as part of the board of the Russian Club in Sydney. “The idea came about: well, why don’t we organise an annual film festival, just based on the success of that premiere. And we managed to do that thanks to the support of the then-premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr. His office helped us launch the film festival and then since then it’s been going on an annual basis.” In fact, it’s grown to become the largest Russian film festival outside of Russia. “It’s been an achievement, I think; something that we’re proud of,” says Maksymow.

Included in this year’s festival program is the winner of 2014’s Kinotavr Film Festival’s Best Film, Test; Dersu Uzala, which won the 1976 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; Goodbye Mum, a modern-day story loosely based on Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina; and the Australian premiere of Nigina Sayfullaeva’s debut feature film, arthouse drama What’s My Name?. Maksymow himself recommends the opening night film Vasilisa: “A really good example of a Russian historic epic”; Kitchen In Paris: “Basically just a lot of fun [and also] has a romance sort of element to it so that is probably the light-hearted film in the program”; and Iron Ivan, based on the true story about the famous Russian wrestler: “I like films that are based on true stories... And what I liked about this one was it really was an accurate explanation or portrayal of this wrestler but at the same time as a film it ticked all the essential elements.”

In this globalised society where the media we consume and create is not confined to our geographical location, does Russian cinema still have distinct characteristics? “I think that it’s sort of at the moment still sitting on the fence. On one side you would argue that the distinct character about Russian cinema is that it’s very realistic. Even if they’re comedies or dramas or thrillers, they have a sense of realism about them... However, that is becoming less of a trademark of Russian cinema. They are trying to compete with Hollywood and they are trying to compete, say, with French romantic comedies and by that they are sort of, I suppose, making films that fit more to that sort of framework. I think it’s just the development of cinema naturally; it tends to go in waves.”

Russian Resurrection Film Festival dates:

Sydney: 30 Oct - 9 Nov
Brisbane: 6 - 16 Nov      
Perth: 06 - 12 Nov          
Adelaide: 07 - 09 Nov   
Melbourne: 13 - 23 Nov