The Art Festival “The Property of Republic” was taking place in the Kirillo-Belozersky museum-reserve during two days. Numerous guests saw performances and films shot in the Vologda region, attended presentations and just walked on the monastery grounds.
The program of the event was opened with an evening with cinema maitre – director Nikolay Dostal who presented his film “Pete on the Way to Heaven”. The story about city fool Pete who suffered from Korsakoff’s disease and about the life of Soviet people in the remote villages aroused spectators’ interest. One of them was Father Superior of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery Ignaty. He expressed his opinion about the main idea of the film: “Why did the Soviet young boy Pete get to the heaven? It is a paradox. But we can say that Pete is a Christian in his inner spirit, belief in better tomorrow, moral and the fact how his life ended. The Saviour suffered for people. Pete suffered, of course, unconsciously, but he saved the life of another person at the expense of his own life”.
Another meeting was held a little bit later in the Vologda Tower which turned into one of the cinema halls during two days. Actor, director and script writer Roman Artemiev told about himself, his work, answered questions of the guests and presented two short films of different genres - “Tasya” and “Saviour”. Roman first came to Kirillov several years ago when he took part in the shooting of the TV series “Apostle”.
A lot of events were held on Saturday, July 13. The book “Cinema of the Vologda Region” written by Tatiana Kanunova, author, film expert and member of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia, was presented in the cinema hall of the Vologda Tower. 32 films were shot in the Vologda region, 10 of them – in Kirillov and its outskirts.
An interactive program was organized for the smallest guests of the festival: they rode a horse, could see 3D films inside of the “Silver Ball” and the puppet play “Thumbelina” presented by Russia’s Honoured Artist Elena Tadlova.
Reconstruction of the military camp of the Russian Army of the First World War was located near the entrance to the New Town of the museum. Everybody could have pictures taken with “soldiers”. The subject of the First World War – great and undeservedly forgotten in our country – is topical now. We will celebrate the centenary of its beginning next year. Re-enactors – members of the Vologda Military and Historical Society – admit that their main task is to tell about military pages of history of our country. The First World War is a priority subject for them now. They collect various materials and data and reconstruction is one of the forms of history study.
The film “Peasant Son” (directed by Irina Tarkovskaya) was screened in the museum at noon. Spectators could meet with the actors starring in the film - Vyacheslav Glushkov and Sergey Kurakin. They told about their participation in the shooting and their career after it. Their life is still connected with art. Vyacheslav Glushkov is an actor of the Moscow State Puppet Theatre named after Sergey Obraztsov (Moscow) and Sergey is an artist and icon-painter. His work “Novorusskaya Icon of the Virgin” - the chronicle featuring the history of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour - was presented a little bit later.
A commemoration meeting of director Gennady Sidorov who had shot the film “Apostle” in Kirillov took place in the conference hall of the museum. Distinguished guests of the festival shared their recollections of the work with him: Honoured Artist of Russia Valentina Berezutskaya, actors Sergey Makarov and Roman Artemiev. People could see photos and video with Gennady Sidorov on the screen. The event was concluded with the screening of the film “Old Women” that had won many awards at international festivals. Valentina Berezutskaya was given the Nika Award for Best Actress.
Artists of the Cherepovets Circus performed before the screening of one more film - “The Property of Republic” which gave the name to the festival. Spectators were delighted with their incredible actions and some of them even tried to act as circus men.
The first night of the performance “Amore, Love, Lyubov” based on the plays of Eduardo De Filippo, Bernard Show, and Alexander Vampilov took place in the conference hall. It was staged by the Chamber Drama Theatre (Vologda) under the direction of Jacob Rubin. The performance consisted of three parts and told about extremes in love stories.
The gala concert of the festival lasted for about two hours. The largest number of people attended it. The Governor Orchestra of Folk Instruments under the direction of Honoured Artist of Russia Galina Perevoznikova, the vocal ensemble “White Lake”, soloists Artyom Polkovnikov, Anastasia Orlova and Alexey Khudyakov, composer and actor Alexey Sidorov, and, of course, all distinguished guests of the festival - Nikolay Dostal, Roman Artemiev, Valentina Berezutskaya, Sergey Makarov- participated in it.
Besides, master of ceremonies Svetlana Chekushina read two addresses of welcome written by Yevgeny Krylatov, composer of the film “The Property of Republic”, and Lev Durov, famous actor, People’s Artist of Russia who starred in the film “Peasant Son”. They couldn’t come to Kirillov, but the guests of the festival could listen to their congratulatory speeches.
