First-ever Russian Film Festival on Disney+Hotstar comes to an end

The first of its kind Russian Film Festival, which offered a bouquet of the best of contemporary Russian films from October 16 on Disney+Hotstar, concluded after a successful run that festival ambassador Imtiaz Ali hopes opens the door for future collaborations between the two cultures.

As part of the gala, 10 notable Russian films of various genres were available on the streamer for Indian audiences till November 27.

The festival showcased two musical romance movies -- Oleg Trofim's “Ice” and its sequel “Ice 2” by Zhora Kryzhovnikov. Both films are included in the Top 12 highest-grossing Russian films of all time.

Other films that were part of the festival line-up include sports drama “On the Edge”, the historical drama “The Story of an Appointment”, drama “Tell Her”, biographical story “Doctor Liza”, comedy ''A Man from Podolsk'', “Another Woman!”, The Relatives” and “Jetlag”.

“The Russian Film Festival brought very interesting and entertaining films which were appreciated by viewers in India, reiterating the fact that good human stories connect with all audiences. This festival opens doors to many such festivals of Russian films in India,'' Ali said in a statement.

The director, in an interview with PTI recently, expressed a desire to set one of his films in Russia as the country has always fascinated him.

''Actually in the houses that I was raised in there were always Russian folk tales and publications as some people around me were communists and had a connection with the erstwhile USSR I was fascinated with the culture In fact Russia was the first country I travelled to when I had a chance to go abroad,'' he had said.

Sarfraz Alam, Festival Director, said the movie gala established the fact that both India and Russia share a deep love for good cinema.

''As both Disney+ Hotstar, filmmakers who showed their work & Roskino (Russian government agency) have found this experience enriching, we hope to collaborate on more such cinema related events,” he said.

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