On November 7, 2020, the XIV International Film Festival ‘Russia Abroad’ was opened at the Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of Russia Abroad.
The festival has been held since 2007 and represents a contest of fiction films and documentaries the aim of which is to introduce viewers to films devoted to the cultural and scientific legacy of the Russian diaspora, the history of World War I, the 1917 state coup d’état, the Civil War in Russia, and the problems of migration in general. This year the festival is held in online format and thanks to it its program can be assessed not only by Moscow residents, but also by people all over Russia as well as compatriots living abroad.
The principal founders and organizers of the festival are the House of Russia Abroad and the Russian Way film studio with the support of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow City Department of Culture, and the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations.
Messages of greetings were brought to the organizers and participants by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Lavrov, and Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Affairs Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk.
The present film forum will show fiction and non-fiction films from ten countries including Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Russia, Serbia, Sweden and the USA.
In 2020, the organizers prepared screening and memorial evenings timed to various commemorative dates: centenary of the Russian exodus, centenary of the formation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, 75th anniversary of the Great Victory over nazism, Alexander Kuprin’s and Ivan Bunin’s 150th birthdays, American actor of Russian background Yul Byinner’s 100th birthday.
Viewers will be introduced to little-known pages in the biographies of film director Andrey Tarkovsky, choreographer Boris Volkov, singer Alla Bayanova, writer Vladimir Nabokov, biologist Sergey Chakhotin, psychologist Yelena Antipova, who made a revolution in pedagogics, circus artist and ‘the strongest man on earth’ Alexander Zass, and other outstanding figures of the Russian diaspora.
The jury of the film contest includes our compatriots representing creative professions from Australia, Belgium, Poland, Serbia, as well as Russian filmmakers.
The Russia Abroad film festival will last till November 14. Its full program is available on the festival’s website.