The II Russian Film Week starts on the 20th of November in Singapore. The I Russian Film Week in June 2019 was held successfully, aroused interest of Singaporeans, foreign guests and was widely spread in the media. It is enough to tell that about 4000 people visited official ceremonies and meetings. In addition, creative meetings, master classes, numerous interviews, accompanied by informal contacts were organized.
As in the previous year, the Organizers of the Russian Film Week are Russia-Singapore Business Council, established on the initiative of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and Within the Family Nationwide program with the assistance of State Corporation «Rostec».
Considering the success of the first Russian Film Week, last autumn Intergovernmental Russia-Singapore high-level commission decided to organize this event annually.
The pandemic impacts on the format of the event. The I Russian Film Week was held offline with leading directors and actors. Modern Russian feature, animation and documentary films were presented there. The II Russian Film Week will be held in the mixed form. Most of the events and screenings will be held online, some of the events will be offline.
The opening ceremony will be held in the form of a teleconference: Singapore – Moscow. The leading Russian actors, directors and scriptwriters of theater and cinema, some of them are the owners and nominees of the leading film awards, will appear on the Red carpet of the II Russian Film Week.
In Singapore, representatives of government authorities, cultural institutions, and mass media will be involved in the opening of the II Russian Film Week. CEO of «Centre for Overseas Promotion of Russian High Technology Companies and Presentation of Investment Projects» in Singapore Winnie Teo will take part in the II Russian Film Week.
2020 year is the 75th anniversary of the end of II World War, in which the Soviet Union, of which Russia is the legal successor, and Singapore were allies. At that time Singapore was not an independent state and was part of the British Empire. Both countries were subjected to aggression. Western regions of Russia were occupied by the forces of Nazi Germany, and Singapore by the troops of militaristic Japan. That’s why the main theme of the upcoming event is the military theme. As in the previous year, all presented films are modern. The program of the II Russian Film Week is presented by the following films: Green Carriage (2015, film director – Oleg Asadulin), The Balkan Line (2019, film director – Andrei Volgin), Battle for Sevastopol (2015, film director – Sergei Mokritskii), Sobibor (2018, film director – Konstantin KHabenskii), Indestructible (2018, film director – Konstantin Maksimov), I am Teacher (2016, film director – Sergei Mokritskii) and Saving Leningrad (2019, film director – Aleksey Kozlov). In terms of genre, these films are military-historical dramas and action films. Screenings of films about the war should remind everyone of its horrors and demonstrate that such global conflicts should not happen.
During the II Russian Film Week in Singapore, informal meetings of guests of the Russian Film Week with major entrepreneurs and businessmen will be held. Its goal is strengthening of Russian-Singaporean relations.
The novelty of this film event is that the Opening ceremony and movie screenings will be broadcast live on the Platforms: RSTrade and Odnoklassniki. In Singapore the ceremony and film screenings will be held in the Centre for Overseas Promotion of Russian High Technology Companies and Presentation of Investment Projects.
Despite the pandemic, Russia-Singapore Business Council continues to work actively. For example, several exhibitions were held this year. The last one, TAP-2020 took place quite recently. It was the largest exhibition in Asia. For second year in a row, Russian companies were represented on a single platform under the brand of the international electronic service B2B Platform RSTrade, which is operated by the Russian-Singapore Business Council. More than 20 Russian companies were represented, in total there are almost 85 thousand companies from 26 countries in the Platform. The Centre for Overseas Promotion of Russian High Technology Companies and Presentation of Investment Projects is renewed, expanded and continues to take part in many projects. Its creation is also an initiative of the Russia Singapore Business Council, which was actively supported by the State Corporation «Rostec» and its holdings. In this November two years have passed since a permanent showroom of Russian technologies was opened on the basis of the Center; thousands of heads’ enterprises and organizations from the countries of the Asia-Pacific region have already visited it. Its Platform is also used in the II Russian Film Week.
We invite to visit II Russian Film Week, watch and discuss Russian films. We are sure that screenings of films and events will arouse interest of the Singaporean and Russian population and contribute to the growth of mutual understanding and respect between the people of our countries. We wish everyone to get aesthetic pleasure from views.