Battle For Sevastopol will screen as part of the Russian Resurrection Film Festival.
Camera IconBattle For Sevastopol will screen as part of the Russian Resurrection Film Festival. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Revel in Russian Resurrection Film Festival at Cinema Paradiso

Julian WrightEastern Reporter

RUSSIAN Resurrection Film Festival’s third year in Perth is set to be one of the biggest with 18 films, says festival director Nicholas Maksymow.

About 32 films were watched and researched in the last 12 months to create this year’s schedule.

“Since we began 12 years ago, the festival has evolved and grown; the first year was only in Sydney and Melbourne and now we have got 18 films,” Maksymow said.

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“The festival is more diverse with a variety of genres.”

The festival now reaches more cities, covers more genres and shows more films, while also appealing to a wider audience.

“Our stats show that initially 12 years ago, the festival was supported predominantly by ex-pats,” he said.

“But now we find it is about 50 per cent of the audience; it is not just people with Russian heritage anymore.”

Maksymow said it took almost a year to prepare for each festival.

“After each festival we debrief in December then we have about a three month festival-free zone before we start preparing for the next one,” he said.

“We keep an eye on what has had a good performance at the Russian box office, and directors whose work we might have shown two or three years ago, because we find audiences remember them and are interested to see their latest work.”

He said he was excited to show Teacha this year ahead of its Russian release and Battle For Sevastopol, a Russian/Ukrainian production.

“It is not controversial, but it is fascinating because it has a Ukrainian director and is a joint production between Ukraine and Russia despite the conflict between them,” he said.

The Russian Resurrection Film Festival runs from November 12-18 at Cinema Paradiso.

Session times and tickets at www.russianresurrection.com/2015.