In Armenia CIS film makers ask to restore old cultural relations

Participants in the programme "Cinema of CIS: 20 years of independence," of the VIII International Film Festival "Golden Apricot" during the round table on the problems of the CIS films, which was held on July 13, representatives of Armenia, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries reported the need to intensify and deepen old relations.

Arutyun Khachatryan, the general director of the film festival, said that the leadership of the "Golden Apricot" ponders over the question of organising a retrospective run of the films from Central Asia, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. "We always do everything for abroad countries; however, unfortunately, we have forgotten each other, and this is a very negative fact," said Arutyun Khachatryan.

According to Elena Stishova, the Russian film critic, very often namely the absence of any knowledge about other cultures causes intolerance, particularly in the Russian society, to representatives of other CIS countries. "Issue on development of the relations within the CIS countries should be based on the profound scientific approach," said Elena Stishova.

According to the Uzbek director Sabir Nazarmukhamedov, Ukrainian director Roman Balayan and other participants in the round table, the problems of the film makers of the CIS countries are very similar in many respects. In particular, the problems include arbitrariness of film distribution, lack of sufficient attention to the cinema from the state and loss of audience.

"Dissolution of the Soviet film makers association has significantly reduced the quality of the films of the CIS countries, many of the films entered the narrow national channel," said Roman Balayan.

The eighth traditional international festival "Golden Apricot" received this year a record number of applications – 630 entries from 81 countries, of which 150 from 45 countries were chosen.