Karen Shakhnazarov’s “Anna Karenina-Vronski’s story” opened the Days of the Russian Film in Bucharest

“Anna Karenina-Vronski’s story”, the latest drama film directed by Russian director Karen Shakhnazarov in 2017 opened the Days of the Russian Film in Bucharest at Cinema Eforie on Thursday night, with the renowned film director attending the opening gala.

The 8th edition of the Russian film festival runs in the Capital until Sunday, October 29 and is dedicated to the 65^th jubilee of the director Karen Shakhnazarov, with seven movies in his filmography being screened at Eforie Cinema (2Eforie street, downtown Bucharest).

Shakhnazarov, who has been also the general director of the Mosfilm since 1998, told a press conference and also the opening gala that it’s a great honor to be back in Romania.

“The first time I was in Bucharest was in 1984 to present my film, “We, the jazzmen”. The second time I had a retrospective at the Romanian Cinemateca in 2001 and I was also in Romania in 2009. I appreciate the Romanian audience very much, for it’s an open and welcoming,” the Russian filmmaker said.

Yet, the Mosfilm director stated that the Russian-Romanian relation in cinema is quite poor, and that this festival can be one of the important steps in developing this relation.

“I consider this event very important and not because is my personal retrospective. I have to say that our relations on cinema are pretty poor. We rarely can see Romanian movies in Russia and also, Russian films are rarely released in the Romanian theaters. It’s important that the century-old tradition unites us and we have all the premises to move on in our relationship and the film retrospective is one of the important steps in developing and maintaining these ties,” Shakhnazarov said.

As for Anna Karenina film, the director said that besides the feature film, Mosfilm also released an eight-episode serial, whose production costs have been roughly estimated to EUR 10 million.

While keeping the novel’s action and essential scenes, Shakhnazarov focused on different angles of the original story in his new adaptation, trying to bring out Vronski’s version and his feelings. So, the action of the film starts with “30 years after” based on the encounter between Anna Karenina’s son, now a military doctor and her former lover, count Vronski, now an old general injured on the battlefield and alternates with Vronski’s memories about the original love story with Anna Karenina.

“Everybody knows the history, but we focused on another approach, highlighting the story from a man’s point of view, so that women can understand that men can love, too,” the Russian director said in the opening gala.

Karen Shakhnazarov also added that the biggest problem of the adaptation of Anna Karenina is the end. “Not many still read the novel those days, but everybody know that Anna Karenina committed suicide. So, it’s difficult not to have the same end. However, in the film we used a method that allowed us to avoid the suicide topic, while preserving a thread of hope,” the Mosfilm director explained.

“1904. The Russian-Japanese War. Manchuria. Russian military hospital on the retreat stations in a half-destroyed Chinese village. The head of the hospital Sergey Karenin learns that the wounded officer Count Vronsky is the person who ruined his mother Anna Karenina. Harboring no illusions and expecting no answers, Karenin comes to Vronsky and asks him the question which has been tormenting him all his life: what made his mother cross the line? After some hesitation Vronsky agrees to tell the story of his tragic love for Anna Karenina, observing that people remember only what they choose to remember. Immersed in the past, Vronsky begins to reassess the story of thirty years ago and finally comes to realize that for many years he has been in the grip of the bygone events,” reads the synopsis of the film.

Within the Days of the Russian Film, Eforie Cinema will also host the screenings of six of Shakhnazarov’s films: “We, the jazzmen” (1983), “The Horseman named Death” (2004), “Dreams” (1993), “Courier” (1986), “The Day of the Full Moon” (1998) and “Winter Night in Gagra” (1985).

The tickets for the Days of the Russian Film are available at Eforie Cinema’s booking office.

After the screenings in Bucharest, the Russian film festival will tour other cities in Romania, Ploiești, Cluj-Napoca, Satu Mare, Suceava, Sighetu Marmației and Iași.