Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Alexander Zeldovich's Target (2011) is playing exclusively December 16, 2016 - January 14, 2017 in the United States.All utopias are alike; each dystopia is dystopian in its own way. But is it a utopia or dystopia we are talking about here? In Alexander Zeldovich’s Target, Russia of the near future is prosperous and comfortably numb: energy sources for export still abound, heavy trucks rush along the Guangzhou–Paris highway replenishing the treasury with toll money, and sleek skyscrapers of Moscow symbolize the country’s welfare in stone, steel and concrete. Victor, the Minister of Natural Resource– “king of the mountain,” as he calls himself—has it all:a large, hi-tech apartment, a Chinese biographer and appropriately spiritless facial features. He is the perfect picture of a man who has made it in a land of bureaucratic capitalism. The film’s other dramatis personae...
- 12/23/2016
- MUBI
Mubi is exclusively showing Alexander Zeldovich's Target (2011) from December 16 - January 14, 2017 in the United States.The natural terrain so revered in the past of Russian art is a largely digital entity in the future of Alexander Zeldovich’s Target, overlaid with megacities and serpentine highways and casually picked at by supercilious characters. (One of the protagonists contemplates a rare volcanic nugget and sticks it in his breast pocket, as if filching a novelty pen.) The year is 2020, and Moscow is a sleek network of glass compartments, robotic chimes, and Chinese billboards. Describing himself as “the King of the Mountain,” the Minister of Natural Resources (Maksim Sukhanov) has luxury and power and a gorgeous wife (Justine Waddell) purchased at the “bridal fair,” but that’s not enough—youth is the ultimate grail, finally available in a deserted excavation near the Mongolian border, where celestial radiation has a mysterious anti-aging effect on visitors.
- 12/16/2016
- MUBI
Russia’s Ministry of Culture is calling for Phenomen Films, the producer of Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s marathon project Dau, to return $340,000 (RUB22.5m) in production funding as well as $120,000 (RUB8m) in interest.
According to the Russian daily newspaper Izvestiya, an Arbitration Court in Moscow has ruled in favour of the Ministry since there appeared to be no sign of the project being completed and the last report on the production’s status had been in 2011 when shooting was completed on a specially constructed set in Kharkhov.
The co-production between Russia, Sweden, Germany and France had also received backing from the Swedish Film Institute, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mdm, Arte France Cinéma, Ukrainian State Film Agency, Wdr/Arte, and Eurimages, and was shot at locations in St Petersburg, Moscow,, Baku, London and Copenhhagen as well as the studio set in Kharkhov.
Dau, which was pitched at the CineMart co-production market in Rotterdam in 2006 and presented as a co-production case study...
According to the Russian daily newspaper Izvestiya, an Arbitration Court in Moscow has ruled in favour of the Ministry since there appeared to be no sign of the project being completed and the last report on the production’s status had been in 2011 when shooting was completed on a specially constructed set in Kharkhov.
The co-production between Russia, Sweden, Germany and France had also received backing from the Swedish Film Institute, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mdm, Arte France Cinéma, Ukrainian State Film Agency, Wdr/Arte, and Eurimages, and was shot at locations in St Petersburg, Moscow,, Baku, London and Copenhhagen as well as the studio set in Kharkhov.
Dau, which was pitched at the CineMart co-production market in Rotterdam in 2006 and presented as a co-production case study...
- 11/16/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
An adaptation of Vladimir Sorokin’s bestselling novel The Norm is among eight film projects to be presented at a pitching forum in Venice by Roskino in cooperation with the Venice Film Market on Sept 6 .
Producers Uliana Kovaleva and Antonio Piccoli will be looking for co-producers from Germany for Matrioshka, which is based on the fifth novel by Sorokin who is regarded as the most scandalous Russian novelist of the post-Communist era.
According to Russian scholar David Gillespie, The Norm, which was written between 1979 and 1984 and only published in full for the first time in 1994, is “a statement on the Soviet collective and individual psyche in the last years of the Soviet power”.
The Venice forum will also see producers Nikolay Bunkin, Igor Fokin and Vladislav Pasternak of Hhg Film Company looking to attract international partners for Konstantin Shelepov’s futuristic drama Censor, while Star Media’s Vlad Ryashin, the producer of Renat Davletyarov’s war drama...
Producers Uliana Kovaleva and Antonio Piccoli will be looking for co-producers from Germany for Matrioshka, which is based on the fifth novel by Sorokin who is regarded as the most scandalous Russian novelist of the post-Communist era.
According to Russian scholar David Gillespie, The Norm, which was written between 1979 and 1984 and only published in full for the first time in 1994, is “a statement on the Soviet collective and individual psyche in the last years of the Soviet power”.
The Venice forum will also see producers Nikolay Bunkin, Igor Fokin and Vladislav Pasternak of Hhg Film Company looking to attract international partners for Konstantin Shelepov’s futuristic drama Censor, while Star Media’s Vlad Ryashin, the producer of Renat Davletyarov’s war drama...
- 8/21/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Roskino and Russian Cinema are joining forces for the first time to present companies in the Russian Pavilion at the forthcoming Marché du Film in Cannes.
In previous years, the two promotional platforms – Russian Cinema financed by the Russian Cinema Fund (Rcf) and Roskino by the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Culture – had operated from separate locations in Cannes.
And at the Berlinale’s European Film Market, Russian Cinema has had a stand in the Martin Gropius Bau, while Roskino was based on the first floor of the Marriott Hotel.
At a press conference in Moscow, Rcf executive director Anton Malyshev spoke about the reasoning behind the decision to organise a united stand and pointed to the “necessity for optimisation of expenditure” and the fact that the available resources were limited this year. Although the financing from the state had not been formally cut, the weakening of the Russian rouble vis-a-vis the Us dollar had put the...
In previous years, the two promotional platforms – Russian Cinema financed by the Russian Cinema Fund (Rcf) and Roskino by the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Culture – had operated from separate locations in Cannes.
And at the Berlinale’s European Film Market, Russian Cinema has had a stand in the Martin Gropius Bau, while Roskino was based on the first floor of the Marriott Hotel.
At a press conference in Moscow, Rcf executive director Anton Malyshev spoke about the reasoning behind the decision to organise a united stand and pointed to the “necessity for optimisation of expenditure” and the fact that the available resources were limited this year. Although the financing from the state had not been formally cut, the weakening of the Russian rouble vis-a-vis the Us dollar had put the...
- 5/1/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Dau
Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky // Writers: Ilya Khrzhanovsky, Susanne Marian, Vladimir Sorokin
Long touted as one of the most ambitious Russian films ever made (but perhaps one of the most ambitious film projects in the history of cinema itself) is Dau from director Ilya Khrzhanovsky. Over 700 hours of footage, a shoot that eclipsed six years amidst the director’s construction of a town that worked and operated as if it were a real place existing within a 1950’s timeframe, several published interviews and reports with those who experience set visits have come away describing something that sounds like pure madness. The extended shoot ended in a grand baccnalian bonfire three years ago, and in late 2013 it was announced that the film was locked in post-production in London labs, where a crew of people were struggling to piece it together into something rumored to be around two hours in length. Khrzhanovsky, who...
Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky // Writers: Ilya Khrzhanovsky, Susanne Marian, Vladimir Sorokin
Long touted as one of the most ambitious Russian films ever made (but perhaps one of the most ambitious film projects in the history of cinema itself) is Dau from director Ilya Khrzhanovsky. Over 700 hours of footage, a shoot that eclipsed six years amidst the director’s construction of a town that worked and operated as if it were a real place existing within a 1950’s timeframe, several published interviews and reports with those who experience set visits have come away describing something that sounds like pure madness. The extended shoot ended in a grand baccnalian bonfire three years ago, and in late 2013 it was announced that the film was locked in post-production in London labs, where a crew of people were struggling to piece it together into something rumored to be around two hours in length. Khrzhanovsky, who...
- 1/9/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Trieste’s When East Meets West (Wemw) co-production market is to cast its net wider to include North America for the first time.
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, Wemw project coordinator Alessandro Gropplero explained that the market’s 2015 focus on English-speaking countries will seek to encourage closer links between producers from Eastern Europe, Italy, the UK, Ireland, the Us and Canada.
At the centre of Wemw’s fifth edition (Jan 18-20, 2015) will be the public pitching of 20 film projects - fiction feature films and documentaries - which would make ideal co-productions to an audience of producers, sales agents, and distributors from the participating territories..
The selected projects will be competing for the Wemw Development Award, a scholarship from the Eave producers training programme, and the newly created Egg Digital Cinema Award with a full Dcp offered by Egg, one of the leading Irish post/VFX houses.
In addition, the producers of the selected projects will have the opportunity...
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, Wemw project coordinator Alessandro Gropplero explained that the market’s 2015 focus on English-speaking countries will seek to encourage closer links between producers from Eastern Europe, Italy, the UK, Ireland, the Us and Canada.
At the centre of Wemw’s fifth edition (Jan 18-20, 2015) will be the public pitching of 20 film projects - fiction feature films and documentaries - which would make ideal co-productions to an audience of producers, sales agents, and distributors from the participating territories..
The selected projects will be competing for the Wemw Development Award, a scholarship from the Eave producers training programme, and the newly created Egg Digital Cinema Award with a full Dcp offered by Egg, one of the leading Irish post/VFX houses.
In addition, the producers of the selected projects will have the opportunity...
- 9/11/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Dau
Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Writers: Khrzhanovsky, Susanne Marian, Vladimir Sorokin, Kora Landau-Drobantseva
Producers: Coproduction Office’s Philippe Bober, Artyom Vasilev
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Teodor Currentzis, Youriy Alekseev, Radmila Schiogoleva
Patiently, we are still awaiting to hear if this might be the lucky year for Dau to make a bow. We had the film pegged for last year’s Most Anticipated list (#5) and fair to say, if the trend disturbingly continues, we won’t hear a peep out of it for the next twelve months ahead which will only confirm that production is completely off the tracks a la Synecdoche, New York. Winner at Rotterdam in 2005 for his debut film 4, Khrzhanovsky’s artistic ambition is unmatched by any I’ve seen in a very long time (I include Cuarón’s 7-years-in-the-making Gravity) — this on-going production (used three cinematographers, four editors) took a life of its own has had thousands of extras,...
Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Writers: Khrzhanovsky, Susanne Marian, Vladimir Sorokin, Kora Landau-Drobantseva
Producers: Coproduction Office’s Philippe Bober, Artyom Vasilev
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Teodor Currentzis, Youriy Alekseev, Radmila Schiogoleva
Patiently, we are still awaiting to hear if this might be the lucky year for Dau to make a bow. We had the film pegged for last year’s Most Anticipated list (#5) and fair to say, if the trend disturbingly continues, we won’t hear a peep out of it for the next twelve months ahead which will only confirm that production is completely off the tracks a la Synecdoche, New York. Winner at Rotterdam in 2005 for his debut film 4, Khrzhanovsky’s artistic ambition is unmatched by any I’ve seen in a very long time (I include Cuarón’s 7-years-in-the-making Gravity) — this on-going production (used three cinematographers, four editors) took a life of its own has had thousands of extras,...
- 3/7/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Dau
Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Writer(s): Khrzhanovsky and Vladimir Sorokin
Producer(s): Coproduction Office’s Philippe Bober & Artyom Vasilev
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Tba
Winner at Rotterdam in 2005 for his debut film 4, Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s artistic ambition is unmatched by any I’ve seen in a very long time. His second feature film has turned into a real life Synecdoche, New York. A production so epic that it mkes Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut appear like an easy shoot. An on-going production that took a life of its own has had thousands of extras, has taken over an entire town and has stretched well beyond the norms in terms of what occurs on set. As described by some published articles, we either have a mad genius or a mad man running the show.
Gist: This is a biographical film about Lev Landau.
Release Date: Crossing my fingers for Cannes this year.
Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Writer(s): Khrzhanovsky and Vladimir Sorokin
Producer(s): Coproduction Office’s Philippe Bober & Artyom Vasilev
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Tba
Winner at Rotterdam in 2005 for his debut film 4, Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s artistic ambition is unmatched by any I’ve seen in a very long time. His second feature film has turned into a real life Synecdoche, New York. A production so epic that it mkes Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut appear like an easy shoot. An on-going production that took a life of its own has had thousands of extras, has taken over an entire town and has stretched well beyond the norms in terms of what occurs on set. As described by some published articles, we either have a mad genius or a mad man running the show.
Gist: This is a biographical film about Lev Landau.
Release Date: Crossing my fingers for Cannes this year.
- 1/16/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Just yesterday, we got word from Deadline's Nancy Tartaglione that Sienna Miller and Toby Jones would be playing Tippi Hedren and Alfred Hitchcock in the BBC-hbo co-production, The Girl. Later that same day, the Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit broke the news that, after four years in development, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho "is in the process of being set up at Fox Searchlight. Anthony Hopkins, who is attached to play Hitchcock, and Sacha Gervasi (Anvil! The Story of Anvil), who is directing, are making the move and are being joined by Helen Mirren, who will play the filmmaker's wife, Alma Reville."
The Playlist's Kevin Jagernauth: "The subject matter is great stuff for movie buffs. Psycho was a project that Paramount hated. Hitchcock was originally going to direct No Bail for the Judge with Audrey Hepburn but had to scrap those plans when the actress became pregnant. So he moved on to Psycho,...
The Playlist's Kevin Jagernauth: "The subject matter is great stuff for movie buffs. Psycho was a project that Paramount hated. Hitchcock was originally going to direct No Bail for the Judge with Audrey Hepburn but had to scrap those plans when the actress became pregnant. So he moved on to Psycho,...
- 12/8/2011
- MUBI
Chantal Akerman (center), Almayer's Folly World Cinema Selections Almayer's Folly: Chantal Akerman loosely adapts Joseph Conrad’s novel set in Malaysia, the tragic tale of a failed European trader and his "mixed blood" daughter. Dir Chantal Akerman. Cast Stanislas Merhar, Marc Barbé, Aurora Marion, Zac Andrianasolo. Belgium/France. U.S. Premiere. Alps: Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos returns with a tale of a group offering an unusual service for grieving families: They inhabit the role of the recently deceased. Dir Yorgos Lanthimos. Scr Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou. Cast Aggeliki Papoulia, Aris Servetalis, Ariane Labed, Johnny Vekris. Greece/France. U.S. Premiere. CARRÉ Blanc: One of the strongest debuts in years, CARRÉ Blanc is a dystopian sci-fi vision of a world with limited resources and limitless cruelty. Dir/Scr Jean-Baptiste Léonetti. Cast Sami Bouajila, Julie Gayet, Jean-Pierre Andreani, Fejria Deliba, Valerie Bodson. France/Luxembourg/Russia/Belgium/Switzerland. The Day He Arrives:...
- 10/23/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The great popularity of author Vladimir Sorokin is as good an example of any of how much Russian culture has changed, and how quickly. An underground writer who began his work in the 1970s, Sorokin's writing has a darkly satiric edge to it - an edge that meant all of his books were banned throughout the Soviet period. Despite being published abroad his work would not be available at home until 1989 and then in 2001 - just twelve years later - Sorokin was awarded for his contributions to Russian literature.A number of films have been made based on Sorokin's novels in recent years with the most recent being Alexander Zeldovich's Target, a film that premiered quietly in Berlin.Russia, 2020. A group of friends...
- 5/29/2011
- Screen Anarchy
One of the great myths about totalitarianism is that the system is more efficient and lawful—“At least the trains run on time,” the pithy colloquialism goes—and the people are satisfied with that instead of freedom. Vladimir Sorokin’s novel Day Of The Oprichnik, translated by Jamey Gambrell, gives that myth the lie by portraying a day in the life of one of the violent, above-the-law men who keep the population in a state of terror. The novel is set in 2028, after a neo-Tsarist revolution has built a new, repressive state in Russia. Protagonist Andrei Komiaga serves as ...
- 3/31/2011
- avclub.com
MOSCOW -- Baton-wielding police met protestors in a noisy demonstration outside Moscow's famous Bolshoi Theater Wednesday night at the opening of a production members of parliament have dubbed a "porno opera." Rosenthal's Children, an avant-garde opera by controversial writer Vladimir Sorokin and composer Leonid Desyantnikov, is the first new opera commissioned by the 229-year-old state-funded theater in 30 years. Branded "kitsch, vulgar and necrophiliac" by pro-president Putin members of nationalist parliamentary party Rodina, the opera's plot revolves around the sordid, drink- and drug-riddled adventures of five composers -- including Mozart, Wagner and Tchaikovsky -- and features a chorus of foul-mouthed prostitutes.
- 3/24/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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