Interview with Dr. Ayrat A. Akhmetov
Director Embassy of the Russian Federal, Counsellor
Russian Cultural Center in Beirut
Question 1:Why did you choose Lebanon as your first destination?
Answer: Actually for me, it's the destination because I work here as the Director of the National Council Center and my post now as a representative of the Russian agency which is within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and it's responsible for the cultural centers of all over the world. Thus, Lebanon is under my responsibility. Hence, it's my duty to promote the Russian culture and Russian Cinema as well.
So we aim to do something connected with the propaganda by spreading awareness about the Russian Cinema and getting the Lebanese to know more about it.
Question 2: How does making the festival in Lebanon benefit you? And on which level?
Answer: We work in a field of bringing cultures together. Our mission as Russian Cultural Center is to make Lebanese familiar with the Russian culture in general. When we speak about culture, we speak about all spheres of life that starts from educational exchanges and it goes to all kinds of cultural exchanges. So the cinema plays a very important rolein the cultural life and the language of cinema is one of the most universal languages because itshows everything and it's easily understood by everyone. For instance, you will come across a movie that does not contain any words, only music.
We want the Lebanese people to get to know the Russian Art, specifically, the Soviet Modern Cinema. Russian cinema is still alive and it's prosperous and we have a lot of prominent producers and actors. Our goal is not competing, it's to show that not only are soviet movies entertaining but they are mainly intellectual/cultural so we tried to bring a wide range of movies, documentaries and animations to give you the full image of Russia's cinematography today.
Question 3:What motivated you to launch the first Russian film festival?
Answer:As I mentioned previously, there's a gap in the knowledge about Russian Cinema and Art in Lebanon. We would like to promote Russian cinema and Russian movies which madethe year of Russian cinema a convenient time for that. We see it at as the first step in long term collaboration. We could have some joint projects in the future and try to connect both parts of cinema world together.
Question 4:What are some challenges you have faced during the preparation of the festival?
Answer:The festival itself in terms of organizing is challenging. We need to work together, be patient, and of course handle expenses wisely. Taking into consideration a lot of factors, risks and surprises. Any event that is connected with a lot of people and expenses is always challenging. However, we have a very good team and professional people helping us and making the journey easier and of course we are backed up by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture and Tourism. We want to thank them for that. We have a lot of local partners who provide us with anything we need. This festival goes on the patronage of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs so we expect this important step in terms of cultural and humanitarian exchange between Lebanon and Russia.
Question 5:What distinguishesthis festival from other ones (festivals in general)?
Answer: This Festival is mostly introductory. Usually in festivals, they choose the best movies however our aim is to focus on introducing and promotingour Cinema to the Lebanese people. As the title says "5 years in 5 days", we want to bring 5 years of Russian culture in 5 days to highlight a small glance of the Russian production. It's a small push for the Lebanese viewers to get interested in the Russian movies.
Question 6:What do you promise the Lebanese audience to expect as future plan?
Answer: As future plans we would like to have a rise in the corporation of the cinematography and of course eventually have joint projects between Lebanese actors and producers from Russian and Lebanese universities majoring in cinematography. We would like to take advantage of this project to promote the culture of Cinema and establish bridges between our countries and build an extended relation between Russia and Lebanon, bringing our people closer and closer.
As conclusion, this festival will introduce us to Russia in a deeper sense - culturally, intellectually and experience an exchange between 2 countries that admire cinematography. Hopefully, some day we can organize a Lebanese Film Festival in Russia as well.
