Brad Pitt to open Moscow International Film Festival

Brad Pitt will open the Moscow International Film Festival today with the apocalyptic film World War Z, a thriller about zombies taking over the world. The 35th edition of the festival will close with Russian biopic Rasputin featuring Gerard Depardieu as the advisor to the last Tsar. Depardieu took up Russian citizenship earlier this year after he fell out with the French government who criticised his decision to move abroad to avoid higher taxes. He is currently shooting in a film in Chechnya with Liz Hurley.

The festival will feature 16 films in its official competition, documentaries and a series of retrospectives dedicated to well-known directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci and Alexei Balabanov, who died last month aged 54. Some of the most notable out-of-competition films are Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo starring Audrey Tatou and Sophie Blondy’s L’Etoile Du Jour featuring Iggy Pop.

The festival runs until 29 June.