Spied in Vyborg: who won the Window to Europe Festival

Folk horror films, comedies, road movies, and experimental films were juxtaposed at the 34th Window to Europe Russian Film Festival. The screening took place in Vyborg from August 4-9, and among the dozens of works presented, there were obvious audience hits. Two "shelf" films were also shown, the actors of the series "Overheard in Vyborg" were announced, and festival works were outlined, which will be discussed and awarded throughout the next season. Izvestia tells about the main events of the "Window to Europe".

How was the Window to Europe festival held?

The Window to Europe in Vyborg and the Lighthouse in Gelendzhik have become two major national film festivals today. At the same time, the formats of events largely determine their content. Mayak is a professional forum where cinematographers and journalists attend screenings, just like in Cannes. The Window to Europe is closer to the Berlin International Film Festival, it is not just integrated into the city, but has long become an integral part of it.

The venues are scattered around the historical center, a summer outdoor cinema is being installed on an old square with paving stones, ordinary people can come to all screenings and other festival events, often for free. A prize in the Vyborg Account contest is awarded by an open vote for everyone.

Therefore, the "Window to Europe" is a kind of test of films for audience suitability, this is taken into account when forming contests and parallel programs, and many producers make considerable efforts to fit into a busy schedule and test their product in a hall consisting of such a diverse audience. What critics will appreciate will not necessarily coincide with the choice of the townspeople, and if it turns out that both liked it, it means that the perfect balance has been found, you can safely prepare for the rental.

It is logical that in this scenario, Vyborg's program this year tends towards genre films, but with an author's handwriting. There are two mystical horror films in the competition — Hamlet Dulyan's "Forest" (his second work after the dystopia "We") and Vladislav Malakhov's "Dark Thoughts" (debut). And both are not without rewards.: the first one has the third place in the audience vote, the second one has prizes from film critics and the Producers Guild (the last one also costs 500 thousand rubles).

And even if the films are not devoid of templates, they are made and played with high quality, they will have their own audience, they are easy to imagine in cinemas in the top five leaders of the box office. Both feature stars. In "The Forest" Lyanka Gryu and Karina Razumovskaya wander through forests where there are goblins and witches, in "Dark Thoughts" there is also a witch with whom Maxim Stoyanov's character is in a difficult relationship. That is, folk horror continues to live in Russia, it is in demand.

There are comedies among the winners. For example, "How to Survive a Marriage," a strange mix of "Fidelity," "Arrhythmia," and completely serial humor. Evgenia Gromova and Alexander Yatsenko seem to be playing a drama about a married couple who have not been doing well for a long time, but their relationship is invaded by a flighty mother-in-law, who turns the plot of suspicion and jealousy into clowning. The award is the first place in the audience voting and a Special jury prize "For a sense of humor".

The special jury prize "For a bright Debut" was awarded to the historical film "On the Edge of Childhood" by Vladimir Zakharenko. Despite the fact that this is a debut, the movie is made quite conservatively.: This is the story of a teenage girl who wanders through the icy besieged Leningrad, carrying letters. If he breaks the norm, it will be considered as a test assignment for the postman position. The girl's Path allows the authors to create a gallery of images from the life of the city during the war, and this movie is easy to present both on the big screen and on television.

Scandals and intrigues of the "Window to Europe"

The main events of the festival were the screenings of two films that had been waiting for the premiere for two years. The festival opened first. "It's all her!" is a film that was previously known as "Malvina" for five years.

Back in 2021, it was supposed to be shot by Evgeny Sangadzhiev. This is a story about a thirty-year-old woman who is tired of being a waitress and lover of a married musician, because she was once a talented pianist and could have had a brilliant career. The heroine is helped out of the crisis by an imaginary friend Malvina.

The project did not take place and was relaunched in 2023: Daria Charusha became the director, and Anastasia Ivleeva played Malvina. But the film was not released in 2024 as planned. In two years, the creators used AI to change Ivleeva's face to actress Anastasia Belova, and Yulia Khlynina voiced the new Malvina. It's done so subtly that if you don't know, you might not notice, but now the romantic comedy "It's all her!" will be released in October in wide release. Nikita Yefremov played the main male role there.

The second film is "The Garden behind our house". He was selected for the "Windows to Europe" competition in 2024, but just before the festival he disappeared from the program because he did not receive a rental certificate. The reasons are not reported, but it is known that in a new form, the film with Nadezhda Mikhalkova in the title role managed to get a PO.

This is a chamber family drama about a family that lives in Grozny on the eve of the first Chechen campaign. Boys fall in love with girls, Russians are friends with Chechens, but above all this there is a premonition of big changes and big trouble. We understand this in subtle details, and then the tension begins to build, but nowhere does the film cross the line of artistic psychological statements, it seems to be trying to linger in the moment when everything is still good and everything can be saved.

Of course, this is the best film of this year's festival, it deservedly received the grand jury prize and 500 thousand rubles from the Producers Guild, although the audience may not accept it immediately, this is a movie that requires attention and patience.

The sensation of "Windows to Europe" was that during the festival, Peter Todorovsky and Ivan Baranov held a presentation of the new series "Overheard in Vyborg", which is being filmed in the city right now. This is either a spin-off, or the second part of the series "Overheard in ...", the authors, it seems, have not yet decided themselves. But the main characters will be other characters, and for the first time the actors who will play them were introduced at the "Window to Europe". This is Lyubov Aksenov and Adam Nekhai. The authors of the series expect that after the show's release, the tourist flow to the city will grow as much as in the case of Rybinsk.

Separately, it is necessary to highlight the film "Landscaping" by Vitaly Suslin. He is little known to the general public, but he is one of the most unusual and talented directors of his generation. A student of Karen Shakhnazarov, he inherited his master's absurdist aesthetics. In 2017, he made a splash at Kinotavr with the film "The Head. Two Ears" and since then has been on the programs of prestigious festivals, including the Moscow Film Festival.

His new work "Beautification" is an attempt to combine the urban symphonies of Federico Fellini and the silent plasticity of Jos Stelling. It's not so easy to retell the plot without spoilers, but you can limit yourself to the fact that there are two gods in a tiny town — a brand-new monument to Pushkin and a garbage truck driver. You can fall in love with Pushkin, and the garbage truck driver makes the world cleaner and brighter and fills it with life-giving moisture.

Fate will be unfair to both of them, but that's what the gods are for, to remain immortal and beautiful. It's hard to say who and when will decide to release this experimental, but very subtle and relevant movie, but it's definitely worth keeping an eye on. At the "Window to Europe" he received two prizes — from the Media Congress "Commonwealth of Journalists" For the best screenplay and the Prize of the president of the festival Sergey Ursulyak with the wording "For directing".