Fathers and Uncles: "Yura was Here" became the best film of the Mayak Festival
Debutant Sergey Malkin showed Mayak that not only punk culture is alive, but also faith in humanity. To a deafening ovation from the audience, the team of the film "Jura was Here" took away the Grand Prix of the festival. Konstantin Khabensky won the best male role, and Sonya Raisman was awarded in the Best Director category for "Pictures of Friendly Relations." The main theme of the festival was the family — in all its complexity. About which films can't be missed now — in the Izvestia report
Punks, hoi!
For the third time in a row, students of director and screenwriter Alexei Popogrebsky have won at the Lighthouse. In 2023, Anna Kuznetsova's "Vacation" was named the best film, a year later — "Summer will End" by Vladimir Munkuyev in collaboration with Maxim Arbugaev, now the main prize has gone to Sergey Malkin for the picture "Jura was Here".
— Dasha Kotreleva's dog ate her shoes before the trip. And our producer Ivan Yakovenko said: if we take the Grand Prix, he will buy her shoes at TSUM. Actually, I managed to make the film exactly the way I wanted it to be," Malkin said from the stage.
Director Sergey Malkin, actor Kuzma Kotrelev, actress Daria Kotreleva, who took part in the film "Jura was Here", which won the Grand Prix of the Mayak Festival
The director conducted an amazing social experiment on the audience. First, he put them in the disturbing atmosphere of a squalid communal apartment where goofy musicians live, then he put a man with mental peculiarities in front of them, which the boys have to keep an eye on, but did not make an edifying drama about inclusion out of the picture. Instead, Malkin and his team created a kind, sincere and open story about how no one deserves to be disdained.
Konstantin Khabensky played the same Uncle Yura in the film. The jury, chaired by Bakur Bakuradze, awarded him the prize for best actor for his work without a single word, accurate portrayal and trust in the debutant. The actor sent a video message to Gelendzhik and thanked the creators for the opportunity to look at the beauty of the world through the eyes of a big child.
A shot from the movie "Jura was here"
"Yura was Here" captures not only the plot, which is based on real events, live characters, dialogues and successful improvisations, but also the music. She is a separate hero of the film. Kuzma Kotrelev and Denis Paramonov sing songs by Bryansk punk band Kick Chill and Tver rockers from the band "Pioneer Camp Dusty Rainbow". Yes, they sing in such a way that even ardent opponents of the underground wanted to add these songs to their playlist.
The triumph of the debutants
The theme of the third festival was family. In each of the ten films of the competition program, in one way or another, the directors considered the relationship between parents and children, close and distant relatives, and friends who are sometimes closer than blood ties. Someone shouted about problems until his voice was hoarse, like Yulia Snigir's heroine in Vyacheslav Klevtsov's film "My Son", someone, on the contrary, endured the hardships of fate with a smile, like the characters in Nina Volova's debut work "Fireworks in the Afternoon".
A shot from the movie "Above Eternal Rest"
One of these "maternal" novels, "Over Eternal Rest" directed by Svetlana Proskurina, took home awards for best cinematography (Oleg Lukichev) and screenwriting (Ekaterina Tirdatova).
Another festival favorite is the debut of director Sonya Raisman, "Pictures of Friendly Relations." The film disarms with the honesty of documentary observations about the inside of the film party and makes you fall in love with the charming atmosphere of a talented farce with acting pains and joys. The result is the precious "Mayaks" for Best Director and Best Actress (Maria Karpova).
The jury recognized the painting "Fireworks in the Afternoon" by Nina Volova as the best debut. She was filming her family's story.
— My dad also had a chandelier shop, a big house with a swimming pool. But an era has changed, everything has moved online. The house had to be sold, and we had to move out," Volova told Izvestia.
A shot from the movie "Fireworks in the afternoon"
Not only Nina made her debut in the film, but also producer Peter Todorovsky, cameraman Nikita Zonov and Chinese-born actor Wang Bing, who is actually an associate professor of economics at the Vladivostok Institute.
— I still teach at the institute and now I took a special vacation to come to the festival. But my students didn't believe that I was in a movie. Although I even graduated from the acting department. And now I can say with confidence that after 50, life is just beginning," Wang Bin shared with Izvestia.
It is a rare case in the competition program when animated films compete along with feature films. But Konstantin Bronzit is not one of the timid ones, and he, a two-time Oscar nominee, does not need to prove anything. As the director rightly noted in an interview with Izvestia, the painted character has no human energy. This did not prevent the Bronzit team from winning the hearts of the Mayak cinematic audience, although they did not receive any awards. On November 20, the film "On Release", shot jointly with the Canadian studio, will be released nationally.
An image from the animated film "On the discard"
The parable of youth and love by Amet Savenko "The Game of Hide-and-Seek" was named the best short film, and the film "Folds" by Ekaterina Skakun was awarded the diploma "Special Mention" for warmth and tactility by the jury.
Applause for hugs and a family row
Each film screening of the Mayak competition program was accompanied by applause. At the beginning, together as a greeting to the team, at the end, together as a sign of gratitude. And only the reaction of the audience during the course of the film led to certain arguments. At the last Mayak, during the screening of Maxim Arbugaev and Vladimir Minkuev's drama "Summer Will End," the audience exploded with approving applause when Makar Khlebnikov's character took up a gun and lynched Yura Borisov's character.
This year, people applauded when strangers in the film "Fireworks in the Afternoon" helped each other on the bus and hugged warmly, or when a harmful neighbor made a conciliatory gift to the hero of Khabensky in the film "Jura was Here." This change in audience response is pleasing and works as a sign of the times. Another thing is that the audience at the festival is specific: only professionals are allowed into the hall, and not everyone, and Mayak has a rather closed, elite format.
Interestingly, the nepotism is felt not only in the choice of the program, but also outside the cinema. The opening film was Bakur Bakuradze's biopic "Lermontov" about the last day of the poet's life, and the program was closed by his wife or Malakhova's series "The Lighthouse", on which their daughter Anna worked as a second director. This is Ili's second directorial work. The first one, "Hello, Mom," was also shown at the Mayak in 2023. It is symbolic not only of the consonance of the names of the painting and the festival, but also of the format of the last show, encouraging the audience, to be continued.
The Mayak Festival of Contemporary Russian Cinema was held with the support of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives from October 4-9, 2025.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
