The Bulgarian director who won the MIFF prize turned to Mikhalkov with an unexpected offer.
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Could the filmmaker refuse the award?
On April 27, the 45th Moscow International Film Festival ended. Almost all the laureates were present in person that evening. There were no representatives of the embassies, who sometimes receive awards in friendly ranks for absent winners. And there was no one to accept only one statuette of “Silver George”. It was awarded to the Bulgarian-Canadian film “F1.618” by Teodor Ushev. In the evening, information was leaked that the director allegedly refused the award.
The jury of the main competition, led by Indian director and producer Rahul Ravel, awarded the film a special prize for originality and creative risk. The dystopia “F 1.618” was directed by the Bulgarian director Teodor Ushev, who has been living in Canada for a long time. He is a graduate of the Bulgarian National Academy, a well-known director and artist of animation films, who in 2011 took part in the International Animation Festival “KROK”, which was held for many years by Russia and Ukraine, and its participants sailed along the rivers of the two countries on a ship and showed their films. Theodore was a member of the jury and presented his new painting. It is also a 2017 Oscar nominee for Best Animated Short Film. So highly appreciated was his “Blind Vaisha”, whose heroine saw the past with one eye and the present with the other. In a word, Theodore Ushev is a prominent figure, and the appearance of his name in the MIFF program, which mainly featured paintings from Latin America and Asian countries, was just a godsend. Naturally, the selectors could not miss such a chance and the opportunity to expand the geography.
Ushev shot his debut feature film, very original. It is about totalitarianism, characters who think they are superhuman. Visually, the film is similar to Kin-dza-dzu. Teodor Ushev himself applied to participate in the MIFF. It was known in advance that he would not come to Moscow, but he agreed to participate online in a press conference, which happened. Reports later appeared in the Bulgarian press that his speech had been shortened. And in the Canadian press – statements condemning the participation of the picture in the Russian film festival.
The award was presented by the Colombian director Ciro Guerra, who, for sure, did not know anything about the background. The director was not present, and representatives of the Bulgarian Embassy in the Russian Federation and the Bulgarian Cultural Center, who in the past years took an active part in the events of the MIFF, were not present in the hall. And since no one came out for the prize, words were heard from the stage that the creators of the picture could not attend the ceremony, and the prize would be handed over to them later. That is, the organizers did not replay anything. Everything went on as usual.
A message from Theodore Ushev appeared on the net, where he suggested that Mikhalkov leave the prize in his office next to the icon of St. George, which is a symbol of the victory of good over evil. There were such words: “Thank you for the recognition. Cinema is a powerful weapon, but it must serve good. In my film, a small man is fanning the fire of totalitarian titans, as in the fairy tale about Ivanushka, who outwitted Koshchei the Deathless. There were no comments from the management of the MIFF. When incidents like this happen at major world festivals, it becomes an instant sensation. The organizers are even happy about such incidents, because this is additional advertising.
The Romanian director Cornel Georgits, who has lived in France for many years and represented the Dead Man’s Bride (France-Romania) in the MIFF competition, also experienced pressure from the Romanian institutions, who called for him to refuse to participate in the MIFF. Last year, a series of refusals followed, as soon as foreign directors faced the fact that their films, due to participation in the MIFF, became undesirable at other film screenings. Even one Iranian director left the game at the last moment, as some companies and directors, having received an invitation to come to Moscow, responded with a polite refusal.
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