RUSSIAN CINEMA CELEBRATION

FILMS, FILMMAKERS, AND ART FROM RUSSIA

 

THE FATHER (OTETS)

Based on the short story by Andrei Platonov

Sunday, February 17 @ 1:30pm

In Person: From Moscow, Director-Producer

Ivan Solovov and actor Alexei Guskov

 

Includes Post-screening Reception with Hors d'Oeuvres and Vodka Tasting

sponsored by Imperia & The Jewel of Russia premium vodkas

The war has ended, but instead of joy at the thought of returning home, bitterness and anxiety haunt Alexei Ivanov. Do his children remember him, for he left to war when they were so young? And what of his wife, Lyuba? Masha, a young female soldier, also lives through the same anxiety as Alexei. Her parents are dead and she is pregnant by a comrade who has disappeared. Alexei accompanies Masha to her hometown to provide cover for her pregnancy – and perhaps to delay his own voyage home. Finally returning, Alexei is at first relieved to see that his wife and children are alive and healthy, but soon suspects that Lyuba was unfaithful and is shocked by the starkly premature adulthood of his young son. At war everything was simple: every day could be your last. But now, Alexei needs to understand that his wife and children were themselves fighting to survive, and they must start their relationship over from scratch, in love and forgiveness. The war may have ended but the wounds will require a great deal of healing. Russia, 2007, 82 min., color; In Russian with English subtitles; Director: Ivan Solovov

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                  RAGIN

Based on 'Ward 6' by Anton Chekhov

Winner: Best Film, Karlovy Vary Film Festival

Sunday, February 17 @ 5:00pm

In Person: Actor Alexei Guskov

 

At the turn of the twentieth century, Andrey Yefmitch Ragin (Alexei Guskov), who heads a deteriorating and poorly administered asylum near St. Petersburg, wants to bring new Viennese ideas to the treatment of hysteria and mental illness, but a younger doctor challenges his embrace of modern ideas and favors more brutal methodologies. Sardonic, brooding, and at times fantastic, Ragin suggests that in some cases idealism may not be far from madness. -MoMA

Russia/Austria, 2005, 95 min., color; In Russian, German with English subtitles; Director: Kirill Serebrennikov; Cast: Alexei Guskov, Alexander Galibin, Dmitri Muliar, Agrippina Steklova

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Ivan Solovov is the writer and director of more than 40 documentary and feature films and has produced an additional 30 television series and features including Eric Rohmer’s latest film, Triple Agent. Film honors include numerous prizes from festivals in Sophia, Bulgaria; Versailles, France, Leipzig, Germany; Moscow, Russia; Riga, Latvia; Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Tiraspol City, Moldova; and Saint-Raphael, France. In 1988 Ivan created and continues to run Mentor Cinema, Russia’s leading film studio specializing in television, feature and documentary film production. In 2005, Ivan was awarded the Gold Medal and Diploma “National Wealth” by the Charitable Fund for his whole-hearted devotion to Art. Most recently, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Art by the Government of Russia.

Click HERE for the offical website of Mentor Cinema.

 

With more than 70 feature film, animation, and theatre credits, Alexei Guskov is one of the most famous actors in Russia today. He has received numerous international awards as both an actor and producer (ZAO STUDIO F.A.F.). including Laureate of the State Prize, RF. Alexei is a member of the President’s Council on Culture.

 

Co-presented by Sundial Productions. Lea Krasnitz has enjoyed an international career as a writer, producer, and journalist and has worked with such luminaries as Freidrich Gorenstein & Booker Prize-winner Yuri Davydov. Currently, she is working with Ivan Solovov and Mentor Cinema on Eternity Water, to be directed by award-winning Israeli filmmaker Arik Kaplun.

 

Art of the Imagination

Friday, February 1 - Monday, February 18

A three-person Gallery Show at the Cinema Arts Centre

 

Vlad Ryklin  New York, NY

Vlad Ryklin was born in 1934 in Moscow. Upon completion of his studies, he worked as an illustrator and poster artist for the Central Commercial Art Bureau. Credits include posters for such prestigious companies as the New York City Ballet, Dresden Opera, Vienna Opera, and awards for best poster in Moscow and Bulgaria. Since 1975, Vlad has worked as a scenic artist for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), including Saturday Live Night Show. For the last 12 years Vlad Ryklin has worked as production designer for CBS Night Show with David Letterman. His paintings have been exhibited in such well-known NY galleries as Nakhamkin (1981) and Meisner SoHo (1994).

 

“Vlad Ryklin’s works are unique... his technical proficiency, combined with an incredible imagination and inner sentiments, produce art that strikingly stands apart from the all-too-familiar contemporary works . . .” Natasha Livit, art critic, New York City, 1998

 

Gia Chikvaidze  San Francisco, CA

With finessing fingers, black wit and winged imagination, Gia Chikvaidze creates a wrenching view of life entirely his own. His scenes are saturated with a delight for the self-satirical gasconade of human posture and illuminated with an extraordinary skill for whimsical expression. Born in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia in 1961, Gia Chikvaidze found early guidance from the artists in his own family before studying graphics and book illustration at Tbilisi Academy of Art. Besides illustration and commissioned murals, he worked on set design for numerous theatrical and movie projects while exhibiting his work throughout Central and Eastern Europe, including expositions in Germany, Yugoslavia, Finland, Poland and Italy.

 

Dmitry Yakovin  St. Petersburg, Russia

Dmitry Yakovin was born in 1969 in Vladivostok. He graduated from Russian Academy of Fine Art, St. Petersburg, Graphics Dept. In 1992 Dmitry graduated from Academy of Fine Art in West Berlin, Germany with Master degree in Fine Art. Since 1992 he is a member of the Russian Society of Art.

In the past 10 years alone, he has participated in more than 35 group exhibitions and 21 one-man shows, including New York Art EXPO-2002, 2003, 2006, 2007; Art Atlanta-2003; and Art Philadelphia-2004. In 1999 Dmitry won third prize,Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY. In 2002, 2003, 2005, and in 2007 he won a privilege to participate in the Exhibition of Society for Art of Imagination, London, UK. In November 2003 two works had been included in “Brave Destiny,” Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, NY – the world’s largest show of visionary art.

 

INTERART Gallery, NYC
225 Tenth Ave., Chelsea, New York, NY 10011
Phone: (212) 647-1811 • Fax: (212) 647-0445 • interartny@hotmail.com
Hours: Tues.-Sat.12:00-7:00pm • Sun. by appt. • www.InterArtNY.com

InterArt is different from NYC’s numerous galleries by offering an intimate setting of a living room and fireplace, softening the high-tech world with the warmth of intimacy and contemplation. It is an almost surreal concept for the hyper reality of the 21st century. InterArt has worked closely with top European and American surrealists for the last twelve years.