“Holidays”: five days after childhood

As you know, in 2022 the previous framework of the film process collapsed. Russian cinema has almost ceased to be accepted into international festivals, and Sochi’s Kinotavr, the main trendsetter of film fashion within the country, has been stopped. Now a new supporting structure is being built – through upgrading existing festivals and creating new ones. The recent festival of contemporary cinema “Mayak” in Gelendzhik, organized by the Kinoprime Foundation, is just one of the new ones. And the jury members, headed by producer Igor Tolstunov (“Metro”, “Mediator”), emphasized some continuity between “Mayak” and “Kinotavr” with their decision. They awarded the main prize to the film “Vacation” by Anna Kuznetsova, a feature debutant, but her short film “Six Two Eight” was awarded in Sochi in 2018.

“Vacation” is a Russian-Finnish co-production of producers Natalia Drozd and Jussi Rantamäki, who already worked together on “Coupe number 6” (they have a hit Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and an Oscar shortlist; from “Coupe” came to “Vacation”) and cinematographer, Finn Jani-Petteri Passi). This is also one of the last films supported by the prestigious European fund Eurimage – which, after February 2022, severed all relations with Russian producers. Natalya Drozd, by the way, is generally one of the stars of the festival – another of her films took part in the competition, “Frau” by Lyubov Mulmenko, which was also among the contenders for victory, in the end it was awarded two prizes – for the female role (Liza Yankovskaya) and for script by the same Mulmenko.