Festival of young European cinema underway in Vologda

The Voices Film Festival, an annual event celebrating young European film, is now underway in Russia’s northern city of Vologda, featuring a selection of films by directors from a host of European countries. With this year’s festival focusing on British film, the event kicked off with a screening of Ken Loach’s newest flick Jimmy’s Hall. In line with the focus on emerging filmmaking talent, the programme has featured the debut film from 21-year-old Russian director and film student Vladimir Bek, Skinless (Bez Kozhi), which earned the young director the Grand Prix at this year’s Movement National Film Festival of Debuts in the Siberian city of Omsk.

British actress and jury member Justine Waddell, best known for her roles in the 2011 Russian film Target (Mishen) and the 2007 film The Fall, spoke to The Calvert Journal about the festival. She said: “It’s a pleasure to be on the jury of a film festival, the competition strand of which focuses only on the first and sophomore films of European directors. They have a particular starting energy from their directors. It will be fascinating to see how that develops through each director’s career. Vologda itself has a strong historical artistic tradition, so it’s a very special place in which to watch these films.”

In contrast to last month’s Moscow International Film Festival, which suffered from a number of foreign directors refusing to have their short films screened in Russia following the crisis in Ukraine, Waddell observed that Voices has not experienced any disruptions. She said: “In terms of relations between Russia and the UK, I know of other projects which have been cancelled outright. How the organisers of Voices have managed to get support in the face of these deteriorating diplomatic relations is really admirable.”

Waddell added: “Kirill Razlogov, the programme director of the Moscow film festival and juror at Voices said that at the Moscow film festival, some people felt they couldn’t come due to sanctions. But here, because this festival is about supporting younger directors who are at the start of their filmmaking careers, political pressures haven’t played a part the way they might with big name directors.”

As well as films, the event features concerts, round table discussions, masterclasses and exhibitions, with two photography exhibitions – one from Russian photographer Gregory Yaroshenko about Britain, and another from British photographer James Hill about Russia. The festival will close on 8 July.