Russian Film Week to open on Sunday in London

The second annual Russian Film Week is set to begin on Sunday 19 November in London, bringing 44 new Russian films to the U.K. capital.

The 8-day event will highlight some of the most acclaimed Russian films of the last year, with such leading directors as Alexei Uchitel, Fyodor Bondarchuk, Valery Todorovsky and Andrei Zvyagintsev due to take part.

The films to be on shown range from blockbuster Attraction, directed by vocal Kremlin supporter Bondarchuk to Zvyagintsev’s Loveless, a biting social and political critique of contemporary Russia, documentaries, cartoons and short films. The documentary Placebo.alt about rock group Placebo’s tour of Russia, which was made with the help of The Calvert Journal, will be shown on 23 November at Regent Street Cinema.

There will also be master classes, talks and several small exhbitions.

Now in its second year, Russian Film Week was founded by Filip Perkon and is organised in partnership with the the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Moscow-based Synergy University and Uchitel’s film studio, Rock Films.

The U.K. premiere of Uchitel’s controversial film Matilda will close Russian Film Week on 26 November. Matilda, which portrays a love affair between Russia’s last tsar and ballet dancer Matilda Kshesinskaya, has this year sparked violent protests in Russia.

A full programme for Russian Film Week can be found here.