Lena Koutsenko
Commercial Director
RUSCICO |
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What new programs do you bring to this market?
RUSCICO keeps expanding its catalogue of the best Russian films and at this year's DISCOP will be presenting the 7-title DVD collection of Nikita Mikhalkov: "At Home Among Strangers", "Slave of Love", "Unfinished Piece for the Player Piano", "Five Evenings", "Several Days From the Life of I.I.Oblomov", "Relatives", "Without Witness". These films produced in 1970 and 80s enjoyed both box-office success and critics approval.
We will be proudly presenting all kinds of rights to Tarkovsky's "Nostalghia" for the Eastern European countries. Check if it's still available for your territory!
To what countries do you have the strongest sales?
Having a strong library of features and mini-series in a variety of genres, we can find the titles that might be interesting to the audiences in any country. Traditionally Chinese and Japanese viewers appreciate war and patriotic dramas, films based on Russian literary classics. Americans and Western Europeans prefer the works of such acclaimed directors as Protazanov, Pudovkin, Barnet, Donskoy. For them we have set up a restoration program of these master pieces, and already have strong pre-sales on this project. Features by Georgian directors Paradzhanov, Abuladze, Chkheidze were sold to US, UK, Italy, Greece, Poland and other territories.
Over the past year we have noted the growing interest of Eastern European TV channels to the Russian films of the Soviet era. Not only the older generation is now watching them, but the younger one is also starting their acquaintance with Russian cinema with the fabulous fairy tales.
How do you evaluate your sales over the past year? What key deals did you have?
RUSCICO DVD edition of "The Commissar" (1967) by Alexander Askoldov was awarded with the Golden Disc for the best restoration in March 2006. Thus this feature with the tough destiny enjoyed the second triumphant return: at its first release after the 20-year censorship ban at Berlin Film Festival in 1988 it was awarded with the Silver Bear and Special Jury Prize. By now the film was licensed to all major Western European territories, US, and Japan.
To celebrate Sergey Gerasimov's 100 th Anniversary his epic "Quiet Flows the Don" will be released later on this year in the United States, Sweden and Netherlands. |
