"This will be a tenth Stalker festival-and it's clear even at first sight that Russia has not made anything to improve the rights situation [since the first]. Shown on the screen these days will be an avalanche of sorrow, bereavement, courage, human warmth, and entangled everyday, political and social problems. The one who sees it all will necessarily get kinder and more tolerant. Of that, I am sure," Alexei Simonov, prominent Russian film director and Stalker jury president, said to a news conference on the upcoming festival.
There are 113 films on the programme-61 Russian contest films and 52 on an hors concours international panorama.
Marlen Khutsiev, one of Russia's foremost film directors, renowned and victimised in the Soviet years, is festival president. There are many celebrities on the jury-suffice it to name Alexei Simonov, movie director and Glasnost Protection Foundation president; top-notch writer Anatoli Pristavkin; Sergei Kovalev, famous rights activist; and director Sergei Govorukhin, known for films and television serials.
Every festival day will be dedicated to a particular topic. The thematic programmes include "The Cinema for Refugee Rights", "The Cinema on Totalitarianism", "The Cinema for Child's Rights", a youth forum motto'ed "The Right for Movies", a women's forum, "The Cinema on War" and "The Cinema on Terrorism".
The festival will be summed up, and awards will find their winners in a Cinema House gala, December 17.
