Russian-Estonian film «Minsk» is nominated in eleven categories of the National Film Award «Nika» in Russia for 2021. Boris Guts, the director of the film, shared this news on his Facebook page.
«Voting academics, I defiantly ask you to pay attention to the film and at least look – not at me, but primarily at the work of the actors/actresses and the cameraman (filmed in one shot). Thank you!», he wrote on social media.
Boris Guts as the writer and director of the picture is nominated in categories «Best Screenplay» and «Best Director’s Work.
Actress Anastasia Shemyakina was nominated in the categories «Best Female Role» and «Discovery of the Year.» Actor Aleksei Maslodudov was nominated for «Best Male Role.»
Daniil Steklov is nominated in the category «Best Supporting Male Role» from the film «Minsk». Julia Aug qualifies for winning in the category «Best Supporting Actress»: by the way, the creators of two other works – «Coupe Number Six» and «Dormitory» nominated Julia for an award in this category.
Daria Likhacheva, the film’s cameraman, was nominated for Best Cinematography. Johannes Valdma and Daria Litvinova are nominated in the category «Best Artist Work. Polina Grechko, Kätlin Haak – in the category «Best Costume Designer.»
And in the category «Best Feature Film» «Minsk», which an international team worked on, will fight for the victory with forty-six other contenders. Among them, by the way, there is another film related to Belarus — «Lessons in Farsi» by Vadim Perelman. This story, based on the story by Wolfgang Koolhaase «Persian for Kapo» about a Belgian Jew who, being in a Nazi concentration camp, invents his own Farsi language to survive, was filmed in Belarus. Unlike the film «Minsk» about the Belarusian protests, the shooting of which took place in Estonia.
Recall that Boris Guts’s film tells the story of the first August protests held in Minsk in 2020. Filmed in one shot, without montage, the film aims to recreate one of the terrible nights of the protest city.
«Pasha and Julia, a young married couple, go out at night and find themselves in the midst of civilian protests. An everyday walk turns into a real hell, in which innocent people become victims of police brutality…,» the annotation of the film says.
As noted by the director of the picture earlier, it was planned to prohibit the screening of «Minsk» in Russia.
We assume that the nomination of the film and its creators for the «Nika» Film Award is a certain opportunity for the team of the film to promote «disgraced» cinema, which increases with getting nominees from «Minsk» to the short list of awards.
For now, we can say only one thing with certainty: the work of Boris Guts has enough competitors.
Source: Reform.by
