Bishop and nuns from Georgia came to the animation festival in Suzdal

The 29th Open Russian Animation Festival, the main professional film festival of animators in the country, has begun its work in Suzdal. It traditionally presents the best films made over the past year. In addition to directors and artists, the jury included Bishop Nikolai, who came from Georgia and organized a children’s animation studio high in the mountains.

This year the festival took a course towards young people and actually became a film screening for students. Dozens of VGIK students and representatives of other film schools came to Suzdal on their own, filling trains and buses. It doesn’t matter that they do not have accreditation and their films are not yet participating in the competition. Everything is in the future. It’s important to spend a few days in a professional environment to see how animation lives.

In the old days, a spontaneous student landing was located right in the lobby of the tourist complex where the festival is taking place, spending the night on sofas (no one drove them away). Now the guys find accommodation on their own in the city, but the hall is still thoroughly filled, so a few minutes before the opening ceremony the organizers slightly panicked. What if there is not enough space in the hall for all official participants?

On the opening day they showed, although only on screen, a collection of wooden mechanical dolls made in 1905 by the Ural peasant Alexei Morozov. It consists of 49 figures made of beech, ash, alder and cherry. Each has a wooden mechanism that sets the little man in motion. The master called his creations a living tree and showed them at fairs. His dolls operate hammers, saws, planes, run machines, weave, sweep, sew boots, and eat at a large table. And they are kept in the Museum of the Puppet Theater named after. Valentina Leontyeva in Ulyanovsk, where Morozov moved at the end of his life. The hall froze when they saw his miracle.

It’s not just students from 19 film schools who are treading on the masters’ heels. They themselves are young adults participating in the “Morning Exercise” program. Every festival day begins with it. If earlier this program was not mandatory viewing, now we can strongly recommend visiting it for the most sophisticated professionals. Children do not have internal censorship, and external censorship does not apply to them. They are not only free in their fantasies, like birds, but also surprise with their adult vision of the world.

“Morning Exercises” includes 106 children’s cartoon studios from 54 cities and towns across the country. Children film the Yakut epic, Tolstoy and modern poets. They’re filming about a black-and-white TV that no one wants to watch until a rainbow flies into it, about a kitten escaping from a flayer. The film “Hello, Yuri, I’m Yuri” wittily tells about Gagarin and Yuri Dolgoruky, about the author himself with the same name and about imaginary spies. Six-year-old and even four-year-old children made a cartoon about the rooster Batya Vasilyevich, who sent the fox to the ophthalmologist. When she put on her glasses, she immediately became kinder and no longer chased the chickens, knitted them a sweater, and they baked her pies. Children understand how important it is to be kind.

The jury of the professional competition included Bishop and Metropolitan of Akhalkalaki Nikolai. He came from Georgia with two nuns. And I had a chance to meet him in the summer in Moscow at a farewell to the director Sergei Seregin, who invented the Suzdal “Morning Exercises”. He died under strange circumstances after a trip to Georgia, where he was filming a movie. Moscow doctors were never able to establish the exact cause of his early death.

Bishop Nikolai organized an animation studio for children in Georgia, thanks to Sergei Seregin, with whom he was friends. “We live in the highlands of Alkhalkalaki at a level of 1700 meters. This is the southern part of Georgia, on the border with Armenia and Turkey. When Sergei came to us, we asked him to make a film with our children,” Father Nikolai told MK. – Our mothers were already familiar with him. Sergei invited them to Novosibirsk for his Firebird festival. They visited there, and when they returned, they organized the “Keys of Time” studio with us. Sergei has a film with the same name. We have children of all ages. The youngest is three years old. After the first presentation, more and more guys come. You will talk to our mothers. They will tell you everything.”

We meet the head of the studio, Mother Mariamna, and the teacher, Mother Esther.

“Sergei came to us to make a film about the bishop,” says Mother Mariamne. – We have a small “black room” next to his house and the museum. There used to be a garage there, which has been renovated. There a “black room” appeared, where children painted with luminescent paints and staged a performance based on Georgian fairy tales. Sergei filmed it, and then told and showed how cartoons are created. The children, under his guidance, sculpted from plasticine. This also became interesting to me. I also showed interest, and Vladyka asked if I wanted to do this. He asked Sergei to bring someone to us to give a master class. And Sergei replied that we need to do everything the other way around: let mother come to the Firebird festival and see everything for herself.

When I wrote to him about how we agreed, Sergei replied that he was in the hospital, but he had agreed on everything, and gave me the contacts of the Novosibirsk festival. I asked how he got to the hospital, but he didn’t answer me anymore. This was his last month. Everything came from Sergei. He continues to lead our studio today.

In our high mountain village, culture is not very developed. Provincial town. Mostly Armenians live, so we held the studio presentation in two languages ​​- Georgian and Armenian. Children show great interest in activities. When we left for Suzdal, they were very worried that they wouldn’t be able to meet this week; someone was crying. We have already made nine test cartoons thanks to Sergei. Mother Esther is our teacher. She draws very well and works great with children. We installed a machine in the “black room”, which is still small, where we work on cartoons.”