Actress Masha Meril spoke about the festival of Russian films in Paris

Honorary President of the Russian Film Festival Masha Meril, nee Princess Maria Gagarina, announced a new show of Russian films in Paris, to which the star actor of Russian cinema Yura Borisov will bring several of his films. She will also present the Michel Legrand Music Prize to composer Eduard Artemiev. The famous actress and writer told Izvestia about this.

“Our festival, the eighth in a row, at which we traditionally show both new films and classics, will take place from March 21 to 29. This year his theme – “When the Russians are on the way” – go to war, move, travel. As always, we will have feature and short film contests. Among the novelties are several films with Yura Borisov, including “Coupe No. 6” by Juho Kuosmanen, “Captain Volkogonov escaped” by Alexei Chupov and “Petrovs in the Flu” by Kirill Serebrennikov. I may not share all of Serebrennikov’s ideas, but he is undoubtedly a great talent. Like last year, we will show the film with Vysotsky. Before the festival, from mid-January in the Parisian cinema “Balzac” on the Champs Elysees on Sundays, the best Soviet films will be shown – “I walk in Moscow”, “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “July rain”, “Ivan Vasilyevich changes his profession.”

According to Masha Meril, the Russian film festival in Paris seeks to play the role of the ambassador of Russian cinema, which the actress considers much more interesting than the French one. She is convinced that cinema helps to better understand the country than politicians, diplomats or journalists.

Masha Meril also spoke about her relationship with director Andrei Konchalovsky, whose skill, in her opinion, is only improving over the years.

Read more in an exclusive interview with Izvestia on December 28, 10:00:

“The French cry when they watch Russian films, but they don’t understand them”