Films marked by national identity and tactility were shown in Kaliningrad

At least two films that are fundamentally different from the rest participate in the competition of the festival of short films and debut films taking place in Kaliningrad. “Take it and remember” Baibulat Batulla filmed in a Tatar village, inviting his father, a well-known Tatar writer and public figure, a translator of the Koran into the Tatar language, to play the main role for therapeutic purposes. Alexandra Likhacheva filmed the author’s sports drama “Kretsul” about a real athlete from Chisinau and immersed the viewer in an authentic environment, far from the neon lights of big and vicious cities that have swallowed up modern young cinema.

Baibulat Batulla was born in Kazan, studied at the choreographic school, and then directed at the course of Alexei Popogrebsky at the Moscow Film School. He took part with short films in Kinotavr, where many people remembered his “Halves” and “It seemed”, as well as in the “In Short” competition about five years ago, he worked on TV shows. And then he reached his feature debut with a mark of 12+, which also became an exception in a series of “adults only” stories. It is interesting that in the festival presentation cut “Take it and Remember” did not raise any special hopes, it seemed deliberate, with a tune, but this was an erroneous impression. The actors are well aware of the style of the Tatar tragicomedy, fabulously ideal, where trouble can be gently shown, but you will understand all the most important things about it, get a sedative pill and definitely not be heartbroken. .

The parents of six-year-old boy Ilham died in a car accident, but he doesn’t know it yet. Grandfather and grandmother, with whom he lives in the village, do not know how to tell their grandson about the tragedy. As long as they entertain him with all their might. Grandfather Rasim buys his grandson one and a half thousand ice cream, turns soda into a king, with which the village children fill the bath, bathe and earn allergies together. But the main thing is the game rendered in the title of the picture. You have to break the chicken bone. Whoever does it best wins. And the loser fulfills his every wish.

The role of the grandfather was played by the director’s father – at the time of filming, 83-year-old Rabit Batulla, a famous Tatar writer, playwright, theater director and public figure. Once he studied in Moscow, graduated from the Shchepkinsky Theater School, worked as an actor at the Kamal Tatar Theater. He also comes from the village, like his hero, and does not lose at all to Roza Khairullina, who played Sufi’s grandmother. Rather, in this organic environment, she is too exotic a bird, which, having removed a rustic scarf, before our eyes turns into a diva with an avant-garde short haircut. Everything here is unexpected, especially the characters. A simple-minded policeman, for example, masters stand-up and reaches heights, he is even invited to television. Here everyone is their own, they live in one world and they experience someone else’s misfortune as their own.

Baibulat made a movie after his father confessed to him: “For 30 years we lived with your mother in perfect harmony, and suddenly a crisis came in our relationship.” It was clear to the son that his parents would not go to a psychologist, but they would watch the film, and this therapy would be enough. On the day of the premiere in Kaliningrad, dad went on stage, and then appeared on the screen, and mom was sitting in the auditorium.

The author’s drama “Kretsul” is radically different from the host of commercial sports projects and was created in a now rare co-production of Russia, Moldova, Lithuania and Turkey. It is also not only for adults, it comes with a mark of 12+. The events take place in Chisinau in 1997. In the future, the multiple world, European and Olympic champion in judo is shown from the moment of his happy start in life: The real person and athlete Oleg Kretsul, who played for the national teams of Russia and Moldova, was played by an actor of the Theater. Leningrad City Council Nikita Volkov. Interestingly, billboards in Kaliningrad are decorated with posters where he plays the role of Stavrogin in “Demons”. Nikita starred in a lot of TV shows, for which he is mostly known, but before that he played Belyaev in “Two Women” by Vera Glagoleva based on Turgenev, where Ralph Fiennes became his partner, he worked for Alexander Mitta in the film “Chagall-Malevich”. We see him Kretsul at a wedding in a cramped Soviet-style apartment filmed with an amateur camera. And then – a tragedy: his young wife dies in a car accident literally three days after the wedding, and he himself loses his sight.

Childhood friend Vitaly, and they are like brothers, becomes Oleg’s eyes, his only support and salvation. Sergey Volkov played a faithful comrade – not a brother in life, namesakes, together they started at the Theater. Lensoviet. Now Sergey works at the Theater. Vakhtangov. The two friends continue Oleg’s sports career together at the Paralympic Games. The picture ends with a chronicle of the real Paralympic Games in 2008, where the real Oleg Koretsul will enter the ring, and his faithful friend Vitaly will be next to him.

The picture was taken by Alexandra Likhacheva with the team, where not only she is a debutante. A graduate of VGIK, the workshop of Alexei Uchitel, Alexandra presented her short film “Katya Krenalinova” more than ten years ago. So the road to a feature debut was a long one. The picture was shot by the Romanian cameraman Marius Panduru, remembered for the Romanian films “I don’t care if we go down in history as barbarians” and Radu Jude’s Crazy Movie for Adults. He also worked with Maria Ivanova in Lebanon on the film “I am not Lakit” and now he perfectly captures the realities of the 90s, giving Alexandra Likhacheva’s painting a palpable tactility, which is very rare.