Films of Kabardino-Balkarian directors selected for retrospective of Alexander Sokurov's works

Today, Saint Petersburg opens a retrospective of the works of film director Alexander Sokurov. The programme includes films of the master, as well as seven works of graduates of his director's workshop in Kabardino-Balkaria.

Graduates of the director Alexander Sokurov's workshop of the Kabardino-Balkarian University spoke about their films and shared the impressions of their training at the workshop.

Kantemir Balagov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that students of the workshop were not restricted in the selection of topics. "The only taboo is violence and bad language. We were taught to create films that protected us from destruction. One of our axioms declares that a person is the most important in a story," Kantemir Balagov said.

The author has noted that the film "First I", which will be shown during the retrospective on June 20, is "an attempt to reflect the process of self-consciousness development."

Maryana Kazancheva, a director of the film "Somewhere Very Near", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that students were not restricted in selection of the topic for their diploma works. She has noted that it was hard but interesting to learn.

"The fact that I studied in Kabardino-Balkaria, in the region where I was born, had a strong influence on me. During the first three years, I regretted that I remained here, since I learned that there was an opportunity to study in Saint Petersburg. Then, I began to realize the situation and understood that to stay in Nalchik and study here was the right decision. The fact that I stayed with my family members allowed me to concentrate on my studies. Nalchik is a small town in comparison with Saint Petersburg, where I would face a lot of distracting things. We drew topics and ideas for films from our own culture," the film director has noted.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.