Aleksandr MINDADZE
Александр МИНДАДЗЕ
Aleksandr MINDADZE
Russia / Germany / Ukraina, 2010, 93mn 
Colour, fiction
V subbotu
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 Innocent Saturday

 Un Samedi comme les autres

Other titles : Un Samedi anodin
 
Directed by : Aleksandr MINDADZE (Александр МИНДАДЗЕ)
Writing credits : Aleksandr MINDADZE (Александр МИНДАДЗЕ)
 
Cast
Aleksey DEMIDOV (Алексей ДЕМИДОВ)
Sergey GROMOV (Сергей ГРОМОВ)
Vyacheslav PETKUN (Вячеслав ПЕТКУН)
Stanislav RIADINSKI (Станислав РЯДИНСКИЙ)
Anton SHAGIN (Антон ШАГИН) ...Valery
Svetlana SMIRNOVA-MARTSINKEVICH (Светлана СМИРНОВА-МАРЦИНКЕВИЧ) ...Vera
 
Cinematography : Oleg MUTU (Олег МУТУ)
Production design : Denis BAUER (Денис БАУЭР)
Produced by : Dmitry EFREMOV (Дмитрий ЕФРЕМОВ), Oleg KOKHAN (Олег КОХАН), Aleksandr RODNYANSKY (Александр РОДНЯНСКИЙ)
Companies : Kino bez granits
Film revenue in Russia : 0.138 million dollars
Release Date in Russia : 24/03/2011
 

Awards :
Best Screenplay Golden Eagle awards, Moscow (Russia), 2012
Special Jury prize "Spirit of Fire" International Debut Film Festival, Khanty Mansiysk (Russia), 2011
Best actor Anton SHAGIN , Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2011

Plot synopsis
The film takes place over the course of one Saturday, 26 April 1986 – the day of the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. As the government tries to cover up the disaster, people go on with their lives. Not far from the site of the disaster, a boisterous wedding celebration goes on, its guests unaware of the deadly radiation. When a young Communist Party functionary realizes what has happened, he rushes to save his girlfriend and his friends. In the process, “life, its banalities and fleeting joys, prove to be stronger than death”. The disaster becomes a mere backdrop to the crucial questions of human existence that face the heroes.
 

commentaries
Un Samedi comme les autres, Alexandre Mindadze, 2010, Fabien ROTHEY, fabienrothey.hautetfort.com, 2012
Les 11 meilleurs films russes de 2011, Maria FADEEVA, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2012
Aleksandr Mindadze : Innocent Saturday (V subbotu, 2010), Barbara WURM, kinokultura.com, 2011
 
"The film is thoroughly documented – which is to say, I have studied a great number of documents. The storyline is completely infused with reality. Every minute is described exactly as it happened. Some of the details are perfectly true to life. I carefully studied the events on which the film is based, and read through witness accounts and documents collected by journalists. The storyline itself, on the other hand, is fictional, composed of various details. There was no Party functionary. The man from Pulsar, the band that played at the wedding party at the Party restaurant – he was real. I built a fictional story out of documentary fragments. I knew full well that in order to leap over reality, the film had to be grounded in something solid."
Aleksandr MINDADZE

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Internet-festival "Rossiskaya Gazeta" Dubl DV@, Different cities (Russia), 2013
- Film Festival Black Movie, Geneva (Switzerland), 2013
- Tromso International Film Festival : TIFF, Tromso (Norway), 2012
- Golden Eagle awards, Moscow (Russia), 2012
- Russian Resurrection Film Festival, Different cities (Australia), 2011
- Sao Paulo International Film Festival, Sao Paulo (Brazil ), 2011
- World Film Festival, Montreal (Canada), 2011
- Tbilisi International Film Festival, Tbilisi (Georgia), 2011
- Berlin International Film Festival : Berlinale, Berlin (Germany), 2011
- Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Thessaloniki (Greece), 2011
- Riga International Film Festival “Arsenals”, Riga (Latvia), 2011
- Warsaw Film Festival, Warsaw (Poland), 2011
- Sputnik nad Polska, Warsaw (Poland), 2011
- Transilvania International Film Festival : TIFF, Cluj Napoca (Romania), 2011
- "Spirit of Fire" International Debut Film Festival, Khanty Mansiysk (Russia), 2011
- International Arctic Film Festival "Polar Lights", Murmansk (Russia), 2011
- Festival "Vivat Kino Rossii", St Petersburg (Russia), 2011
- Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr, Sochi (Russia), 2011
- International Film Festival Tarkovski, Ivanovo (Russia), 2011
- "NIKA" Prizes, Moscow (Russia), 2011
- Award "White Elephant", Moscow (Russia), 2011
- Art Film Festival, Trencin (Slovakia), 2011
- Stockholm International Film Festival, Stockholm (Sweden), 2011
- Antalya "Golden Orange" International Film Festival, Antalya (Turkey), 2011
- Odessa International Film Festival, Odessa (Ukraine), 2011
- Russian Film Festival, London (United Kingdom), 2011
- Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago (USA), 2011

Images