Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov’s detention by the Russian authorities has been extended by yet another two months to July 11.
This decision was made by Nikolai Tkachuk, a judge of the Moscow City Court, claiming that the charged offence poses a particular hazard to the public.
Initially, it had been expected that Sentsov’s trial would start yesterday (May 11), the first anniversary after his arrest on the Crimean peninsula in May 2014.
However, Sentsov’s case will be kept in the public eye by the Ukrainian Pavilion at the International Village in Cannes’ Marché du Film in the next two weeks.
Visitors to the Pavilion will be invited to add their names to a petition calling for the 38-year-old director’s release.
This comes after the European Parliament passed a resolution in its plenary session in Strasbourg calling for the ¨immediate release¨ of all Ukrainian citizens illegally detained in Russia, including Sentsov and the Ukrainian pilot and MP Nadiya Savchenko.
OTHER NEWS
Odessa retrospective
The Siege of Odessa in 1941 will be the focus of the Ukrainian retrospective, Odessa In Flames, during the Odessa International Film Festival (OIFF, July 10-18).
The selection will include feature films and newsreels produced in the Soviet Union and Romania, which present this period during the Second World War from opposite ideological perspectives, ranging from Carmine Gallone’s award-winning drama Odessa In Flames (1942) through Yevgeny Tashkov’s Thirst (1959) and Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s newsreel Bukovyna: A Ukrainian Land (1940) to Yury Petrov’s Odessa Holiday (1965).
Schwerin prize for Naum Kleiman portrait
Tatjana Brandrup’s documentary film collage Cinema: A Public Affair about the world of Naum Kleiman, the former director of the Musey Kino, Moscow’s Museum of Cinema, was named Best Documentary at the 25th edition of the filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (5-10 May) in Schwerin.
The film by Berlin-based Filmkantine had its world premiere at the Berlinale’s Forum in February and had a special screening at the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival at the weekend.
Producer Katrin Springer was in Schwerin to accepted the award on behalf of Brandrup and Kleiman who sent a video message of thanks from Israel to be shown during the ceremony in the historical Mecklenburg State Theatre.
The Feature Film jury, including directors Hans-Christian Schmid and Rainer Simon, actress Heike Makatsch and producer Peter Rommel, gave two of its main awards to Swiss films: the Grand Prix – with the Flying Ox trophy – going to Der Goalie bin ig by Sabine Boss and the Director Prize to Karim Patwa for Driften, while Alice Dwyer’s performance in the Austrian film Ma Folie earned her the Best Acting Prize.
Other awards included the Audience Award for Kersten Ahlrichs’ Taxi, the Leo Children’s & Youth Prize for Mark Monheim’s About a Girl, and the FIPRESCI Prize for Štepán Altrichter’s Schmitke.
In addition, the veteran screenwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase (Solo Sunny, Summer In Berlin) was presented with the festival’s Honorary Award – the Golden Ox - by Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s Prime-Minister Erwin Sellering.
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