The Russian Film Rusalka (Mermaid) is a Prize Winner at the Berlin Film Festival

Russian film director Anna Melikyan (1976- )

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The Russian film Rusalka, directed by the young film director Anna Melikyan, has won the Critics’ Prize at the 58th Berlin Film Festival. “The lucky placing of my film at the festival was a surprise for me”, Ms Melikyan said. “The point is that I wanted my film to be shown all over the country. By the way, it has been screened in Russia since last autumn and it has been a great success”.

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A song from Rusalka by Yelena Vaenga

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The most interesting things occur after the film ends, when the filmgoers are leaving the cinema halls, Ms Melikyan said. “Each viewer finds something in it… something which is not inherent in them. It’s always a shock to me. I understand that this is the main thing that you shoot your films for, to make people see the film and encourage them to think about something that is very important”.

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Rusalka is a melodramatic story about a girl with green hair, who can realise people’s wishes. But, her unique talents, as well as her good soul, deplorably, were not estimated at their true worth. A sad fairy-tale for adults… this is how the film critics define the genre of Anna Melikyan’s work. In January of this year, this film won an award from the Sundance independent film festival in the United States.

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Here’s another song from Rusalka sung by the popular singer Vitas

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Anna Melikyan is 31 years old, and Rusalka is her second full-length film. She brought her first film Mars to the “Berlinale” in 2004. Her short films took part in prestigious Russian and international film festivals. The most well-known of them are Kontrabas and Do vostrebovaniya. Not only filmgoers, but, also professionals show great interest in her films. “Melikyan offers a new film-style”, critics say, stressing that her works are a mix of invention and reality, combined in a proportion one can characterise as “neither too sweet nor too bitter”.

26 March 2008

Olga Bugrova

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=24782&cid=62&p=26.03.2008

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