4th Russian Film Festival, 29 October – 7 November Dear Friends! The Russian Film Festival is getting ready to present London with this year's best premieres in Russian cinema. The Main Programme As always, the main festival programme showcases the best Russian films, award-winners at major international and Russian film festivals. These films include, 'Silent Souls' (Ovsyanki), directed by Alexei Fedorchenko and winner of three prizes at the Venice Film Festival, 'How I Ended This Summer' by Alexei Popogrebsky, awarded prizes for best actor and best cinematography at the Berlinale, 'One War' by Vera Glagoleva, Grand Prix winner at Sofia International Film Festival and Russia's nomination for the Oscars and Svetlana Proscurina's latest film 'The Truce', winner of the main prize at Kinotavr. As in previous years, guests include directors, producers and actors who come to London specially to present their films at the festival. Documentaries – 'Noughties Art' This year's documentary programme sums up the last decade with screenings of the ten best Russian documentary films, one for each year. The programme is presented by the great director and documentary maker, Vitaly Mansky, president of the ArtDocFest. Animation Alongside the main programme and documentaries, we have also put together a comprehensive and diverse programme of animation. As part of our festival 'Astral dogs Belka and Strelka' take a trip to outer space captained by director Inna Evlannikova, while Irina Evteeva, famous for her graceful and original style, brings 'Little Tragedies' to the screen. These films will capture the hearts of adults and childen alike. As well as an extensive programme of full length animation, we will be screening a special programme for our young audiences, presenting the best of award-winning Russian animated films of recent years Special Screenings This year's film festival also includes a retrospective of the great actor and director Sergei Bondarchuk's films and the works of Leo Tolstoy on film, as well as a retrospective of masters of Soviet and Russian animation. Venue For the fourth year in a row the Russian Film Festival will take place at the Apollo Piccadilly, one of London's best cinemas.

Yume Pictures and Academia Rossica are delighted to invite you to a special screening of the film 'A Room and a Half' at 8pm on 10 May at Cine Lumière, South Kensington, London, SW7 2DT, followed by Q&A with director Andrey Khrzhanovsky and actress Alisa Freyndlikh. It is a beautifully mesmerising film based on the life of the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky.

Vladimir Grigoriev is Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Agency for the Press and Mass Communications and he is a tireless campaigner and champion of Russian literature and culture at all the world's major book fairs: he has famously said, ‘Russian literature should know no boundaries.'

Now in its second year, the Rossica Young Translators Prize is hard on the heels of the success of the main Rossica Prize. Through this prize we would like to encourage young people under 25 who are passionate about Russia, literature and translation to enter into the world of professional literary translation. We hope that this award will help to nurture a new generation of Russian to English literary translators, as well as further cultural dialogue between Russia and the English-speaking world. The Winner will be announced on 21 April at the London Book Fair. The winning translator will receive £500 and the opportunity to travel to Moscow to take part in a Translators' Congress in September 2010. All shortlisted translators will be invited to a special programme of events at the London Book Fair and introduced to writers and publishers. If you would like to take part in this competition, please translate one of the three extracts in this brochure. They are taken from new novels written by Russia’s foremost contemporary novelists: Leonid Yuzefovich’s “Журавли и карлики”, Mikhail Shishkin’s “Письмовник”, and Viktor Pelevin's "t". The deadline for submission is 1 April. The translations will be judged by prominent translators and winners of the Rossica Prize – Robert Chandler, Amanda Love Darragh and Oliver Ready. It is an exciting opportunity for young translators to enter into the professional world of literary translation.

26 May
Moscow
On the 26th of May, the names of the writers shortlisted for the 'Big Book' literary prize were announced. 13 authors have been shortlisted. Two of the shortlisted books were entered into the competition as manuscripts: Mariam Petrosyan's 'The House Where'and Andrei Baldin's 'The Extension of the Full Stop'.

By Prudence Ivy
The second ever Russian Film Festival in London opened last Thursday night and I was at the press conference on Friday to mark its opening and get the general lowdown on contemporary Russian cinema from the festival’s organisers and some of the principle directors, actors and producers.

By Richard Hilton
For the second year running, a selection of the best new films, documentaries and video art that Russia has to offer is being shown in central London accompanied by many of their film stars and directors.

By Anja McCloskey
For world-cinema lovers, and especially followers of Russian works, Academia Rossica presents the second Russian Film Festival in London.

By Andrea Hubert
The Russians are coming! Well, actually, they're already here, and now in the second year of their annual UK film festival. London-based arts organisation Academia Rossica showcases some of the brightest stars of contemporary Russian cinema.

By Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
The second Russian Film Festival shows there's refreshingly more to Russians on screen than the cartoon mafioskis of RocknRolla et al.

By David Parkinson
Returning for a second year, Academia Rossica's Russian Film Festival boasts a programme of 10 London premieres that even surpasses the excellence of the inaugural slate. With several actors and directors guesting to discuss their work, this is an outstanding opportunity to assess the current state of one of the world's great film industries.

One of the most versatile of post-Soviet writers, Aleksei Slapovsky (b. 1957) has flourished in the new cultural habitat described by his narrator, A.N. Anisimov. As a novelist, Slapovsky occupies a seemingly permanent slot on the shortlists for all literary prizes; as a screenplaywriter and dramatist, he has reached millions of viewers in Russia and abroad, through his script for the sequel to Eldar Ryazanov's classic comedy, Irony of Fate (1975). All Slapovsky's creative work is of a piece, displaying a fertile tendency towards cross-‘adaptation', but the author himself attaches particular significance to his novels (the complete absence of which in English translation is as remarkable as it is distressing). They include: The First Second Coming (Pervoe vtoroe prishestvie, 1993), which adapts the Gospel narrative to the life of a provincial Russian and has been singled out by many critics for particular praise; The Day of Money: A Picaresque Novel (Den' deneg. Plutovskoi roman, 1999), set in the author's native town of Saratov, like many of Slapovsky's works; and two novels that focus on the glamourous and less than glamourous aspects of contemporary (and often criminal) Muscovite society: Quality of Life (Kachestvo zhizni, 2004, 220pp) and They (Oni, 2005). His most recent novel is The Phoenix Syndrome (Sindrom feniksa, 2007).

Defined, in many ways, by the place of his birth, German Sadulaev was born in 1973 in the small village of Shali within the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Chechnya-Ingushestia. His father was a Chechen, his mother a Russian Cossack, and he had two sisters. Schooled in Grozny, Sadulaev intended to study journalism at the then Leningrad State University, but switched at the last minute to the Faculty of Law. He moved to St Petersburg in 1989, aged sixteen, and has never returned to the Caucasus. Neither his first published piece of literary prose, in 2005, ‘Одна ласточка ещё не делает весны’ (‘One Swallow doesn’t make a Summer’) nor his first novel, which appeared in 2006, ‘Радио FUCK’ (‘Radio FUCK’) made any mention of Chechen issues. All changed, however, with his second major work, ‘Я – чеченец!’ (‘I am a Chechen!), a lyrical fusion of exotic legends, stories and memories, which dealt head on with the plight of his homeland. The book was shortlisted for National Bestseller Prize. Although Sadulaev was invited to meet Putin in 2007, the novel’s impassioned outcry against the Chechen war elicited a heated response within Russia’s political and literary elite. Sadulaev writes that ‘only art has the magic power to convey the insight that all life forms in this universe are one - and that there’s no such thing as someone else’s pain’. Sadulaev describes himself as ‘the last of the classical realists’ but his two most recent novels contain fantastical elements. ‘Таблетка’ (‘the Tablet’) published in 2008 is the story of a consignment of magical pills shipped into Russia from the West. Sadulaev works as a lawyer in a Russian import firm and continues to live in St Petersburg.

25 November 2008
Moscow
Vladimir Makanin was awarded first prize for his novel 'Asan'. Liudmila Saraskina received second prize for her bibliography of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Rustam Rakhmatulin was presented with third prize for his collection of essays entitled 'Two Moscows, or the Metaphysics of the Capital'.

May 2008
Cannes, France
It seems that for Russian cinema, good things come in threes: the Russian film industry suitably showcased at the first ever Russian film pavilion; leading Russian production and distribution companies present their best creations at the International Marché du Film; and stunning triumphs for first-time feature film directors Sergei Dvortsevoy and Valeria Gai-Germanika!

Born in 1975 under his real name of Yevgeniy Nikolayevich Lavlinsky, Zakhar Prilepin grew up in a small village, Ilinka Skaponskovo, in Ryazan Province, not too distant from Nizhni Novgorod. He comes from a family of teachers and nurses. After finishing at the Philology Department of Nizhni Novgorod State University he worked as a security guard and a journalist before joining the Russia’s ‘Special Purpose Police Squad’ (the OMON) and, as a captain, serving on military deployments in Chechnya during 1996 and 1999.

by Andrei Babchenko
Translated by Nick Allen
Portobello Books, November 2007, pp.404
Written shortly after his discharge from the army, the book burns with the need to tell of his personal ordeal and that of his fellows as young, innocent and woefully inexperienced grunts condemned to a miserable life ruled by shell-shocked superiors and perpetual threats.

by Sergei Lukyanenko
Translated by Andrew Bromfield
William Heinemann of The Random House Group, 2007, pp. 487
The morally ambiguous second volume in Lukyanenko's trilogy (after 2006's Night Watch, a major literary and cinematic success in Russia) portrays the epic supernatural struggle between good and evil from the point-of-view of the witch Alisa Donnikova.

By Prudence Ivy
The second ever Russian Film Festival in London opened last Thursday night and I was at the press conference on Friday to mark its opening and get the general lowdown on contemporary Russian cinema from the festival’s organisers and some of the principle directors, actors and producers.

By Anja McCloskey
For world-cinema lovers, and especially followers of Russian works, Academia Rossica presents the second Russian Film Festival in London.

By Richard Hilton
For the second year running, a selection of the best new films, documentaries and video art that Russia has to offer is being shown in central London accompanied by many of their film stars and directors.

By Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
The second Russian Film Festival shows there's refreshingly more to Russians on screen than the cartoon mafioskis of RocknRolla et al.

By Andrea Hubert
The Russians are coming! Well, actually, they're already here, and now in the second year of their annual UK film festival. London-based arts organisation Academia Rossica showcases some of the brightest stars of contemporary Russian cinema.

By David Parkinson
Returning for a second year, Academia Rossica's Russian Film Festival boasts a programme of 10 London premieres that even surpasses the excellence of the inaugural slate. With several actors and directors guesting to discuss their work, this is an outstanding opportunity to assess the current state of one of the world's great film industries.

By Prudence Ivy
The second ever Russian Film Festival in London opened last Thursday night and I was at the press conference on Friday to mark its opening and get the general lowdown on contemporary Russian cinema from the festival’s organisers and some of the principle directors, actors and producers.

President of the International Institute of Global Development
Mr. Lebedev’s career commenced in 1977 at the Russian Academy of Sciences, after which he spent several years as a diplomat, being posted to Russia’s Embassy to the UK as both Third and subsequently Second Secretary.

By Richard Hilton
For the second year running, a selection of the best new films, documentaries and video art that Russia has to offer is being shown in central London accompanied by many of their film stars and directors.

By Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
The second Russian Film Festival shows there's refreshingly more to Russians on screen than the cartoon mafioskis of RocknRolla et al.

By Andrea Hubert
The Russians are coming! Well, actually, they're already here, and now in the second year of their annual UK film festival. London-based arts organisation Academia Rossica showcases some of the brightest stars of contemporary Russian cinema.

By Anja McCloskey
For world-cinema lovers, and especially followers of Russian works, Academia Rossica presents the second Russian Film Festival in London.

By David Parkinson
Returning for a second year, Academia Rossica's Russian Film Festival boasts a programme of 10 London premieres that even surpasses the excellence of the inaugural slate. With several actors and directors guesting to discuss their work, this is an outstanding opportunity to assess the current state of one of the world's great film industries.

President of the International Institute of Global Development
Mr. Lebedev’s career commenced in 1977 at the Russian Academy of Sciences, after which he spent several years as a diplomat, being posted to Russia’s Embassy to the UK as both Third and subsequently Second Secretary.

Director, 'Rock Monologue'
Born in 1956, Minsk. Vladimir studied history at the Belarus State University. He then completed a course for assistant and second unit directors at VGIK (Moscow).

Dir. Rock Monologue
Born in 1956, Minsk. Vladimir studied history at the Belarus State University. He then completed a course for assistant and second unit directors at VGIK (Moscow).