“Americans have managed to make their cinema best, I very much hope, as for us there will come time when we will precisely know that if this picture is made for us and about us it is necessary to look,” Mikhalkov said.

Boris Khlebnikov’s film “Help Gone Mad” which took part before in the competition of the 20th Open Russian film festival “Kinotavr” in Sochi earlier in June, became the opening film of the program. It is a story about burdens and deprivations of a modern migrant worker in a tragicomedy genre.

Another feature film of the program is Vladimir Mirzoyev’s “The man who knew everything”, telling the story of a man so desperate to sort out his shattered life that he attempted to solve his problems via suicide. However, having passed almost 2000 volts through his body, he survives and finds out that he has an extraordinary gift – a supernatural ability to answer any question at all.

Vera Glagoleva’s “One war” tells the story of a tiny northern islet and its inhabitants’ life during the last months of World War II. A sudden visitor – the major of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs NKVD (the secret police organization that terrorized the people of Stalin’s time) – arrives there to prepare people for evacuation.

Other films on show are: “Narrow gates” by Sergey Tkachev; Pavel Ruminov’s “Circumstances”; “Oxygen” directed by Ivan Vyrypaev, and many more.

In addition, some 50 shorts and one full-length film are expected to be shown as part of the “New Russian animation” program.

There are 11 premieres among the films. For the majority of them the Russian program at MIFF is the perfect start. The program is distinguished not only by the variety of genres and styles, but by the attempt to combine the works of masters and beginners.

The Russian program graces the screens of Moscow’s International Film Festival through to June 27.