Today we shall meet with Gennady Sidorov. He’s coming from France. Several days ago at the grande premiere of his Little Old Ladies in France the emotional Jeanne Moreau couldn’t keep back her delight and told the local TV: “Gena is the future of moviemaking!” Early this year Little Old Ladies took the top prize at a major festival of cinema debuts in Angers and now France has bought around 240 copies of the film, which is nothing like any other movie product. However, the biggest success of Little Old Ladies, probably, lies outside the shooting technique, which is, though, unique.

Although a typical Oscar winner is usually a box-office success, remarkable for computer effects only, common human truths are much dearer to the spectator. Especially, our spectator. Hence the numerous awards of the latest Listapad: the silver of the cinema festival, the Jury Prize and a special BelSwissBank prize for the movie that arouses good feelings.

Now BelSwissBank has given a chance to cinema-goers not just to see the movie, but also to meet the film director. This way the organisers demonstrate their stance on the topical films of today.

“Our alternative jury was watching Listapad movies (all very deserving) not as professionals. We tried to choose the would-be laureate with our heart, not eyes. No young person can be raised without kind movies. The Way We’ll Live Tomorrow Depends on What We Watch Today is the slogan of many TV contests. I agree with that wholeheartedly. In chase of profits we lose morals. The society should oppose that. We have ideals – our good old movies...,” says Vitaly Kazbanov, the Chairman of BelSwissBank Board of Directors. 

Little Old Ladies has already been recognised to be among the best Russian movies of 2003. There is no point in retelling the story – it’s better to watch. The movie becomes something tangible from the start, maybe because it features not professional actresses, but common old women from Susaninsk district, Kostroma region. In a telephone conversation director Sidorov told us that he had shot the film in a single take: “It was senseless to confine real old women from the village to some written text. They would sometimes say things no scriptwriter can invent.” Even the poem one of the heroines reads is nothing but her own verse! The film is very genuine, like real life. With belief in a happy end.

“I’m a very tolerant man. I believe that all of us, regardless of the nationality, can live together. Hope is a good reason for optimism,” Sidorov says.

The organisers are hopeful that the movies of tomorrow will be as humane as they should.  

The presentation of Little Old Ladies will be held at Oktyabr movie theatre at 21:00 March 3.

Irina Mihailova, «SB».

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