The Russian Film Festival will be held in Varanasi for the first time

Free screenings of contemporary Russian films will be held in the spiritual and cultural center of India

The Russian Film Festival is being held at the JHV Cinemas Varanasi from August 25 to 27—Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in India. The free screenings are organized by ROSKINO, the Russian film promotion body, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. The event is timed to coincide with the meeting of G20 culture ministers being held in Varanasi on August 26.

Registration for free screenings is at
https://insider.in/russian-film-festival-23-aug25-2023/event

The program includes five films. Adventure and comedy films are very popular among Indian audiences today, so the Russian Film Festival is focusing on such films. The audience will see three comedies: Terrible Dad, about the adventures of Ivan the Terrible, who finds himself in the modern world; My Life on Fast-Forward!, about an accelerated life, and Strict Regime Parents, about the re-education of the mayor of the city, whose actions have exhausted his own parents. The program also includes the family adventure film, The Adventures of Chuck and Huck, which is based on the story of the famous Soviet writer Arkady Gaidar; and the full-length cartoon My Sweet Monster, which was one of the top three highest grossing Russian films abroad in 2022.

The live-action films will be screened in the original language with subtitles in Hindi and English; the animated films with English dubbing and Hindi subtitles.

This is not the first time the Russian Film Festival has come to India. ROSKINO, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, organized screenings of Russian films in 2021 on one of the major VOD platforms, and offline in Mumbai in 2022, when the Russian films attracted more than 1,300 viewers.

Varanasi is an important city in the geography of the Russian Film Festival. Varanasi is the heart of India, and has been its spiritual and historical center for over 5,000 years. It was named the Tourist and Cultural Capital of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2022–2023 as part of a new initiative to promote cultural contacts and tourism among SCO member states.

Russia is actively developing cinematic partnerships with India. In 2022–2023, ROSKINO implemented a number of events including the participation of the Russian film industry in the film market FILM Bazaar (Goa), the Russian pavilion at the SCO Film Festival in Mumbai, the Indian Film Days in Moscow, and the visit of a group of Indian producers to Moscow and a number of Russian regions to identify potential filming locations as part of the Filming Locations in Russia project. Russia is becoming more attractive for foreign filmmakers, in the last two years alone, a number of Indian films have been filmed in Russian locations (Cobra, Pathan, Tiger 3). Indian film industry experts have repeatedly delivered educational seminars for Russian filmmakers at the ROSKINO Academy.

In 2023, Russian Film Festival screenings were successfully held in China, Thailand, Laos, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Jordan, and Brazil. Since the start of the project in 2020, Russian films have already been watched by more than 8.7 million people in more than 30 countries.

Program of the Russian Film Festival in India:

My Life on Fast-Forward! (dir. Nikita Vladimirov, 2022) is a fantasy comedy. Maxim is so busy at work trying to do everything and not let his boss down, that he does not notice the most important things in his life. On the anniversary of meeting his girlfriend and after an unexpected argument with an unusual taxi driver, completely inexplicable events begin to happen to Maxim. He starts living his life on fast-forward—a year flies by in half an hour. In the end, the hero, realizing what is really important to him, makes another “jump in time”.

Strict Regime Parents (dir. Nikita Vladimirov, 2022) is a comedy about re-education. Mom and dad are tired of being ashamed of their son—who is the mayor of their city—and his reputation for being on the take. Having learned that he is planning to run for a second term, the parents decide to take action. This leads to a secluded forest cottage on the outskirts of town turning into a secure facility where they will re-educate the mayor and set him on the right path.

Terrible Dad (dir. Karen Oganesyan, Yuri Korobeinikov, 2022) is a family fantasy-comedy. Having argued with his son, Ivan the Terrible accidentally wounds him—as in the famous painting by Ilya Repin—and the life of the prince is in the balance. To fix everything, Ivan wants to go back in time with the help of a magical book. However, something goes wrong, and the tsar finds himself in modern times, where he meets the Osipov family. Nikita Osipov is an unsuccessful archaeologist and an equally unsuccessful father. He has lost contact with his children, but now they are on a journey together to help Ivan the Terrible find the magic book and save the prince.

The Adventures of Chuck & Huck (dir. Alexander Kott, 2022) is a family adventure film. Two friendly but mischievous brothers, Chuck and Huck, live with their loving mother in Moscow and miss their father, who works in the Far North. They decide to meet the upcoming New Year together no matter what and they set off on an exciting journey to the mysterious Blue Mountains. The biggest adventure in their lives is about to happen because at New Year anything, even the most incredible miracles, is possible.

My Sweet Monster (dir. Viktor Glukhushin, Maxim Volkov, 2021) is an animated family film. There is a scandal in the royal family: the wayward princess Varvara escaped from the palace and went into the forest in search of her handsome prince. However, instead of the planned meeting with her lover, she is captured by Buka, the most dangerous bandit in the kingdom. However, it very quickly becomes clear that the lively princess is ready to turn Buka’s life into a nightmare, just to reach her goal. So, the restless Varvara begins to restore order in the forest.

Screening schedule at JHV Cinemas Varanasi

August 25 (Friday)

6.30 p.m. The Adventures of Chuck & Huck

August 26 (Saturday)

1.00 p.m. My Sweet Monster
7.00pm My life on fast-forward

August 27 (Sunday)

1.00 p.m. Terrible Dad
7.00pm Strict Regime Parents