7 young Russian filmmakers who deserve attention

1. Ivan I. Tverdovsky

Who

The son of the famous Soviet documentary filmmaker Ivan Tverdovsky, a graduate of the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (experimental directing workshop of Alexei Uchitel).

What to watch

Tverdovsky Jr. began in the cinema with video sketches at the intersection of documentary and fiction, in which he unexpectedly accurately explored the paradoxes of the Russian mentality. However, he took the lead with an artistic project - the sensational "Class of Correction". The highly social adaptation of the story about teenagers with disabilities in 2014 won the prize for the best debut on "Kinotavr" and won the love of young viewers.

Tverdovsky's second painting, Zoology, tells about a lonely zoo worker who suddenly grows a real tail, and then her whole life changes. The tape was recognized as one of the best at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, as well as one of the most unusual Russian films in recent years.

What to wait

Today, the 29-year-old director is finishing work on his third full-length work, "Toss". She will talk about a man with supernatural powers.

2. Kantemir Balagov

Who

A graduate of the creative workshop of Alexander Sokurov at the Kabardino-Balkarian University, the main discovery of 2017 among aspiring directors.

What to watch

Balagov shot many amateur short films even before he entered Sokurov's workshop. They can be found on the web. But still, the main and so far the only full-length work is "Tightness" - a powerful psychological drama about the fate of the Jewish family in the North Caucasus in the late 90s. For his debut, 26-year-old Balagov was awarded a prize at the "Kinotavr", and also received recognition from the international film press at the Cannes Film Festival.

What to wait

Balagov is working on a dramatic plot, inspired by the books of Svetlana Aleksievich, about the return of two women to Leningrad immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War.

3. Alexander Hunt

Who

A graduate of VGIK and the St. Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television, winner of the film festival in Karlovy Vary.

What to watch

Last year, Hunt released a road movie, rare for Russian cinema, with the intricate title How Vitka Garlic took Lyokha Shtyr to a disabled home. The story of meeting and traveling together in the Russian outback of the gopovy orphanage Viti with his disabled father resembles a mixture of Guy Ritchie's films with our cop serials. For his eccentric debut, the director received one of the main prizes at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

What to wait

Before the end of the year, Hunt is to release the action-packed comedy "Enskiy Robinson" about a journalist from the city of Ensk who, for the sake of a joke, invented a story and is forced to pay for it.

4. Anya Kreis

Who

Graduate of the Cologne Academy of Media Arts, laureate of the national debutant film festival "Movement".

What to watch

So far, 30-year-old Kreis has released only one picture, but which one. “Found a scythe on a stone” honestly tells about the fate of ordinary residents of the city of Ivanovo: a soldier who returned from the Chechen war, his young lover, corrupt policemen, religious fanatics and people from the Caucasus. Their paths will cross within one day, to inevitably end in shed blood.

With a harsh and in some places frankly harsh film, Kreis continues the tendency that has emerged among women directors to boldly talk about pressing social issues through his films. In this case, however, this sore point is the fate of the whole country.

What to wait

According to the director herself, "it will be a mystical thriller with elements of a black comedy about aborted fetuses."

5. Mikhail Mestetsky

Who

Graduate of the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors, author of more than 10 short films, musician, actor.

What to watch

Mestetsky became famous, first of all, as an excellent screenwriter and comedian. He put his hand to such hits as "Legend No. 17", "Super Bobrovy" and "Good Boy". And as a director, he filmed a number of hilarious short films: from the pseudo-documentary story "Legs - atavism" to the tragicomic incident on the railway ("Minor details of an accidental episode").

The main thing is to call his debut feature film "The Rag Union", the idea of which was hatched for 15 years. This is a funny and sad story of the growing up of a quiet teenager Vasya, who is friends with three hooligans-dreamers and lives with them in the country until sudden love destroys the idyll.

What to wait

At the moment Mestetsky is finishing a new short film, and in the fall a sequel to "Super Beavers" will be released according to his script.

6. Nigina Sayfullaeva

Who

Art critic, graduate of the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors.

What to watch

In 2014, Sayfullaeva conquered Russian cinema with the drama What's My Name. Tearing out the story of two friends who came to Crimea to meet the biological father of one of them, she received a special jury prize at Kinotavr and made a star from Alexandra Bortich.

Nigina continued the theme of sexual and psychological maturation of adolescents in her next works. She most recently wrote and directed the pilot for Kids. And together with him she won the TV-3 and KinoPoisk audience competition. And in the movie almanac “About love. For Adults Only”her episode ironically tells about a schoolgirl, obsessed with the quickest deprivation of virginity.

What to wait

The launch of a full-fledged season of "Kids" on TV-3 and a new feature film under the self-explanatory title "Jealousy".

7. Kirill Pletnev

Who

Graduate of the St. Petersburg State Academy of Theater Arts and VGIK, laureate of the Golden Eagle, actor.

What to watch

The famous actor and TV presenter unexpectedly performed brightly last year with the musical comedy "Burn!" The tape tells about the strict head of the women's colony (Inga Oboldina), inside which the singer lives squeezed by life. The appearance in prison of a new prisoner, a former opera diva (Victoria Isakova), forever turns her life around.

"Burn!" is replete with beautiful musical numbers, beautiful play of two leading actresses and heart-stopping emotions. At the Kinotavr Film Festival, the film became a real breath of good audience cinema among heavy low-budget dramas and put Pletnev in a number of promising new directors.

What to wait

Now Kirill finishes filming the melodrama "Ideal", in which he focused on two girls who fell in love with one guy. After his death, they begin to receive mysterious messages, because of which they will have to go on a journey across the country.