Features of national cinema during the sanctions period: why festivals are canceled

What is the Caucasian world and what kind of culture does it need

On Thursday, August 4, at 12:00, there will be an exclusive live broadcast on VKontakte from the MK press center.

Honored Artist of Russia, President and General Producer of the Crystal Spring Festival in Essentuki, Euclid Kurdzidis, will be the guest of Star Cuisine. He was born in the Caucasus to a Greek family. His ancestors came to the USSR after World War II. Euclid is called the main Greek of Russian cinema. Once he wanted to leave for the homeland of his ancestors, but remained in Moscow.

Euclid graduated from the Dnepropetrovsk Theater School, then VGIK, worked in the theaters of Lutsk and Pyatigorsk, starred in more than 70 films, played not only representatives of his people, but the French, Chechens, Jews, Georgians, Russians and Italians. In the “War” by Alexei Balabanov, he starred in the role of the shepherd Ruslan Shamaev. In his student years, the director of The White Sun of the Desert, Vladimir Motyl, drew attention to Euclid and invited Shermes to play the role of the Greek in Horses Carry Me. In the series “Men’s Work” Euclid played a Chechen militant named Shram, in “The Milkmaid from Khatsapetovka” – a French chef. Hollywood director Jeff Canyu invited him to the film “Babi Yar”, which tells about the Second World War, and chose … as a European type.

In the play “Hamlet” by the outstanding German director Peter Stein, Euclid Kurdzidis had the role of the Gravedigger, in “Antigone” by Sophocles – a project of the Greek Cultural Center in Moscow and the Moscow Theater of the Moon – King Creon of Thebes.

For many years, Euclid dreamed of organizing a film festival for a wide audience in his homeland, in the resort cities of the Caucasian Mineral Waters, and this dream came true. At the “Crystal Spring” the longest red carpet is 555 meters. It is included in the Russian Book of Records. Catherine Deneuve, Pierre Richard, the granddaughter of Vera Kholodnaya, came to Essentuki. All of them gave interviews to MK. Many famous and novice filmmakers of Russia also came to the festival. This year’s guests were supposed to be Inna Churikova and Gleb Panfilov. But the festival did not take place. Why? Nobody really knows. But this fact itself shocked colleagues. About what happened just a few days before the start, we hope to learn from our guest, who somehow managed to save the situation.

We will also talk about the peculiarities of the Caucasian world and its rich culture, about why Lermontov called these fertile places the sarcophagus of art, and why it is so important to fight for the viewer there.

Watch live in our VKontakte group.