A film about the declaration of a state of emergency in Moscow will be shown in Rotterdam

“One Little Night Secret” by Natalia Meshchaninova entered the “Big Screen” competition

The 52nd Rotterdam International Film Festival, opening on January 25, has announced the programme. The Russian film “One Little Night Secret” by Natalia Meshchaninova entered the competition section of the Big Screen Competition, and this is a real miracle in modern times. The program of the short and medium films will show “DVA” by Alexandra Karelina – about the suddenly declared state of emergency in Moscow.

One Little Night Secret is the third feature film by Natalia Meshchaninova. Prior to that, there were the Nadezhda Combine and the Heart of the World. In 2014, Natalia represented in the main competition of Rotterdam her debut “Nadezhda Plant”, filmed in Norilsk, about a 17-year-old girl who dreams of leaving her hometown. The film did not reach the Russian audience, because the director refused to make an additional version without the use of profanity.

In the same 2014, the main prize of the Big Screen competition was awarded to Oksana Bychkova’s “One More Year”, filmed according to the script by Natalia Meshchaninova. Natasha writes scripts (“Arrhythmia”, “Anna’s War”), shoots series (“Red Bracelets”, “My Mom’s Penguins”, “Alice Can’t Wait”). In her films, she often talks about growing up, when feelings are extremely heightened, about the illusions inherent in a person at a young age.

14-year-old Mira from “One Little Night Secret” has quite a prosperous life. There is a mother, a stepfather, a little sister, a close friend, a cat. But there is something that viewers can not even guess. The main role was played by Tasya Kalinina (now she is 17). She has about 20 film credits. The film also starred young, but with experience Lisa Zaporozhets and Oleg Savostyuk, their adult colleagues Stepan Devonin, Danila Kiselev. The film was produced by Sergei Selyanov and Natalia Drozd, who in recent difficult years worked on projects that the world saw. These are “Compartment number 6”, “Goliath”, “Storm”, “Draw”.

On the one hand, it is surprising that Meshchaninova’s picture was taken to the European festival, since Russian cinema is no longer invited to participate. On the other hand, it would be strange if it had not been taken, since the project received a grant from the Hubert Bals Foundation, which works in conjunction with the Rotterdam Festival and supports talented filmmakers from all over the world.

The winner of the Big Screen Competition will be determined by a five-member audience jury and will receive support at the box office in the Netherlands. In total, 16 paintings were submitted in this competition – from Mexico, Denmark, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, and Georgia.

The program of short and medium films included the film “Two” by Alexandra Karelina, a graduate of the Moscow School of New Cinema, shot in the style of cyberpunk. This is a story about how a state of emergency is declared in Moscow, but no one knows why. The main character is looking for a lost dog and is trying to understand what happened. As a result, he finds himself in a world where the dead and the living are inseparable, and the word “death” is forbidden. Yegor Protsko, who worked with Alexandra Karelina on other short films, in music videos and promo videos, became the operator of the picture.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28937 dated December 21, 2022

Newspaper headline:
The secret of the Russian woman mira and the state of emergency in Moscow