oh doesn't believe in that good ninety eight. so the russian films got only fourteen nominations in just seven oscars in this strange considering how well russian cinema is regarded around the world why that and is it a paradox we're asking a director of this year's rushes oscar that. makes you started as a director back in the soviet times one of his first works was the movie rock starring the country's rock music i don't see such as and barry's cribbage call and see says this movie was a rebellion and allowed him to stop thinking through really since then he became one of the gurus of russia's movie make an industry. his fields have been receiving much praise in the country and abroad he wanted main project russia's biggest international film festival in moscow now he's taken his film cry the edge to l.a.

hoping to get the world's most prestigious award an oscar. oh mr chu just thanks for being on our program hello let's start with the oscars why do you think russian films are often acknowledge its european film festivals whereas the u.s. academy hasn't really favored their films saw good or russian. what do you mean we have received oscars but not enough only seven in oscar history which we participate in one category only best foreign language film. tried to get a different award. you know this is the second time i have to you can pour it in this fight therefore my newly subtleties saw the film has the right to be nominated in all categories only when it shows in new york human infants in a foreign language i really wanted to nominate pledging our mushed off for best.

but it didn't work out our film hasn't shown there yet is that can you even be nominated for awards like no there's just one category there's this discrimination or something and all this is just a lot of the u.s. academy and we have to follow it all. the romans do unless we make a film that american film distributers want to show immediately this year has been particularly successful for us the cinema with some movies winning prizes at the biggest festivals spotlight him or. the last ten years have seen ever in the sense in russian cinema from the deep soviet graces the industry had relied on government support for years it was forced to learn to take care of itself the transition was painful with new names emerge and as a result one of them is an example grips who is how i ended this summit to have this the words of the berlin on a film festival the film was shot on the real station in the arctic doctors who

played it to researchers isolated in frozen expanse one awards the russian all three were has also recently won top award at the chicago international film festival another russian film silent souls but a triumph and premier with twelve minute long standing in the at this year's vin these film festival critics say for dorchin goes mythic and poor way to extort of water and death three awards including one for the best camera work the post so we russian cinema is asking for more and more attention film cherished dream now always getting an academy award the last time they were shown picture god it was more than fifteen years ago. you nominate your film his wife's diary for an oscar in two thousand right what right exists so you're saying you have some experience and you know how these things work once a film has been nominated. producers promoters and so on make additional

effort to promote the nominated film and to enable it to win this well if you're interested i can silly about my experience in los angeles when there came two thousand. according to the rules of the canon me we had to choose a publicist and the company that would represent us promote us and so on so we went to a meeting and saw three people sitting there one of them smoking a cigar and they looked exactly how we thought typical american slope would have said it's in our film and they liked it and then they asked how much money we had us all i said we should find a rock five thousand dollars and they just roared with laughter that's when i realized that making a good film wasn't enough you also have to contain fourth list three months there are five thousand academy members but you have only one official film show

that's free of charge then you have to worry and i see everything else you have to advertise to make your film known this requires tremendous effort and then you organize more shows other than this three official one yes you can show it as many times as you want to best you were also allowed to give discs to academy members is that no longer allowed that there's a pretty new series years ago the forbade it and were they offering bribes along with this list but i think this could have been the means of pretext for forbidding as more anyway we have the right to organize shows you know other places as well as los angeles and we are planning to show the film in new york is there are quite a number of academy members living there so it's quite a big job to acquire as funds an effort and a certain knowledge of how these things work well now let's see what the russians think about how a russian fill can win an oscar what should it take to win an oscar for a russian movie spotlights that has tried to find that. hi there well recently

resolutely called the ads has been included in the list of sixty five nominees who are not that let's see what people think a russian movie should have been awarded to win this award in which it was written i think it should be some real situation from the everyday life of an ordinary russian person the story should show a russian character it should be a touching film showing the depths of the great russian so. i think it should have many russian elements it should have less shooting and more russian reality we have a very beautiful nature which would be a very good addition to any story our russian traditions should be at the heart of this film. the truth our reality good and bad the real situation facing our country our russian mentality if shown in the right way to win is an oscar and i think real situations can serve as a good foundation for us to win an oscar life in russia as it is without the silver

lining with too often see in the russian movies i think the truth could win an oscar it should have more truth however it should still be a form but if i think we need some new movie directors who really understand the great russian soul and are able to interpret it in a way that could touch foreign hearts out of god that he hears she's got a question for our guest but would you have a compromise to win an oscar. the generally speaking is winning an oscar compromise or not well i believe that the highest award in international cinematography so it's not a compromise right you win an oscar because you have a certain standing not for a compromise you don't want i believe that some were good for one's standing as well as because you're worth something in filmmaking you know but it was like in spirits oscars are a matter of your rating mediately you either become a leader or you don. and you will remember mr lee hall call telling me that having

won his oscar his started finding budgets and producers for whatever films he wanted to make. this is most probably true. so what compromises are we talking about the muslims and there can be no compromise but you heard the majority of people in our survey say that we need the truth but that we should see the truth in films is anyone in the us academy really interested in that truth or do they prefer a story. well than a film with a russian american or even indian it certainly needs a story it. doesn't need the truth but. you know the mean trouble for most russian films is that they're luck a good story or a well told story for the truth i'm certainly for the truth when we filmed afterward to mush gone driving in. he had to learn to drive to

tribes of steam trains. i support this kind of truth i want to make a viewer or and i can remember and believe what they see. oh i actually disagree with you as a viewer i don't give a damn whether moscow knows how to drive trains or not or whether a man playing a pilot say tom cruise actually knows how to buy a plane that's a different thing whether this kind of a plane can really with and on an aircraft carrier. who cares whether they can or cannot fly and now disagree with me here because you're referring to mechanics so wouldn't you doesn't matter whether he's driving or someone else is but they actually shows an emotional response in that moment so there's a difference who were there we sure was done back more of the actors face it when the train races were filmed for real. and we were driving with our camera along side the trains with

a much golf driving one of them and when i told them to overtake again there was a chance it wouldn't work this was going on for real. me he started overtaking and you should have heard our film current scream. and that's the kind of emotions we want our audience to feel this is a film director talking and one who just finished making a film i think when people were talking about the truth they had something different in mind they want to see the truth about life about history about themselves the truth about russia q as you're going to america i mean are they interested in the truth about the russians or are they rather interested in things that your film shows like there's a russian steam baths with girls and snow and other stereotypical things well what we're showing is first and foremost a very dramatic story and a lot of barriers to what kind of truth are they interested in about their story

firstly the short count is exaggerated to we have a big three shots only and secondly your phone wow i mean there was nothing stereotypical about it our film is a body a winner someone who won the war and met a defeated opponent a young german lady but i believe this story is something americans should identify with as while they're waging a war in iraq. armed conflicts or happening in other places all the time so it's very important. determining who. says i'm a russian so. shortly we'll continue this interview in less than a minute stay with.

wealthy british style. and. find out what's really happening to the global economy. financial headlines to name two reports. to go to the coosa killings contain explosives. to limits to see of slaughter. planes in the sky and seeds of hope to protect our hearts we can provide such accuracy to many forms of modern technology update here. we've. covered.

walk i'm back welcome back to spotlight i'm just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is. a film director whose recent movie the edge a cry has been chosen as the russian nominee for the oscar. we were talking about the true that is your film based on its true story. i know the script is fiction but did this story really happen or is it just a parable. to fill what. you know the stories completely fictional but some of the

scenes. definitely could have happened. but i settlements for former german prisoners certainly existed because now mine bears even more so. he task was to create an illusion i was a true story and illusion in a good sense and that's something i really wanted to achieve but there was one thing i couldn't understand why these people lived in inhumane conditions in the middle of nowhere that's why their settlement was called the edge because even the train tracks up there they were working nonstop but what exactly were they doing there and why did they need a trainer they had nowhere to go to just fool around with no heir to the train could get there from the other side and just had to stop there is. no film they were lumbering at that. now it took you more than a year to make this film which is quite a long time by modern standards. you're always exaggerating the actual shooting to

ground eight months only. you talked about having to torture. as a film director and this wasn't something you enjoyed but it was your job. do you think it was worth the effort torturing yourself and others making people spend so much time in such harsh conditions. well you might at the end well i can say that no we didn't truly need it. because you see for me as for the i mean it wasn't just a film that more of it john if it was something else something related very closely to me that this picture was a living being and i cannot treat him badly that this is in what way was it related to you was it a story of your family or what but no i mean when you're filming something for eight months and then you're preparing for six months and then you have the

post-production period for another eight months so when you have a hundred fifty crew members only living in a closed space for that long these people are really become really good and they become like a long large family. why does he choose the war theme so much has already been filmed about the war. and the my film is not about the war while not exactly but practically it's right after the war that i talked about that already. ironically doesn't matter to me when a story happens and that in this particular story just coincided with the period we're now through the end of world war two actually i'm more interested in a man who finds himself on the edge when he doesn't know what will happen to human next what that is going to look at you said you wanted to make a film about a winner writes as a film director. your message to the audience that you're in between people and god

as some directors believe that do you think this is something that's russians need today to remember and to think of themselves as winners that would have to i believe it's a very morning story you may go out to do and get here on the head and you know no awards. going on. you mean like myself and fear for your children so anything can happen to them but he worries the age when we may be watching each other in some way. i'm gonna start killing each other. this is what is interesting. so i believe it's an absolutely more than a film. and they. shot the film captive now adds i also read that you are also going to show a film about how are you here. but why is

it because you think it's important now that yes i'm actually missing with captive where there are only three characters two russian soldiers and a young chechen lad who was first taken prisoner as their enemy at that which is and then they walk to their unit for twenty four hours the end their relationship changes yes but that was because it's not important that they do for a half nikolay like in the edge if the male character who can't even say a word in russian is german but if you really feel that the person you're with is close to you in a spiritual sense or due to romance then an entirely new relationship develops. of course i know that too we won't change anything by making just one or two affirms but when little tolstoy. he was thinking about how to change things and how to ring people closer together in tell them let's stop at some point. of saying

the films should be either about war or love otherwise they're not our spectator what about both is yours about war or love. it's about enemies and the victories and love love anyway those films must be about love otherwise and yes lou. how would you characterize the genre of your felt. really hard to determine. coffin i would choke about how to label it in drama yes sure at the same time it has something of a melodrama so we can see you to new genre dram boster drawn buster. as like me getting the help in his time a label for his film he called at home among strangers and easter. but your first festival screening wasn't around so didn't yield any results or offers

how on earth well this film is perceived in the west but. the toronto festival is very special in general first of all because of its. buyers and distributors from all over the world together there. that's why i'm asking that he and i have been deer three times with various films so why go walk or is this very sentiment that after the film is shewn you get millions so it was just asking you to explain the story that we showed the film five times and not a single question of followed about why the characters lived there they were mostly about some emotional things but so i do. sense the toronto audience understood the film so will the members of the cademy but he wanted them by the way speaking of offers i read reports that your film captive was released proposals from

america to do a remake of the action taking place in iraq did that story continue. but at this point we have signed up for a women or a green mentors if you know you know in general i'm looking in american soul superposed to remake our film walk based in new york and in irish filmmaker want siri make. some reason i have had good luck in america i have won several festivals there although they're not as significant as in europe. but we walk was a great success there but it was. because of luck but you make films they're not bound to a place or a particular time what's important is these films have a human dimension of war within maybe a ride but still all these stories are russian to

a great extent except perhaps walk it's going to i have a personal impression that your essence as a documentary author can be seen in your feature films. just began with documentaries i recall a film rock that brilliant piece watched by all of my generation then you switch to feature films how did that happen was this which dental or was it your children path to go from documentary to feature. absolutely yeah it was purely done till you know i had felt quite comfortable doing documentaries because i had never made a film score on television and had no interviews in my documentary but i just tried to document long life or even to reconstruct it to some extent however it so happened that i was to make a documentary about a ballet dancer olga specific to a who was ninety five by that time and as we were ready to fly to new york she died

so i had this crazy idea to trying to make it feature film although i was sure nothing good would result out of it you know how much one has to overcome bureaucratic financial another obstacles but i do then surely somehow everything worked fine you know i was able to make my first feature film she's ells maniac and sooner. i realized that this was mine in i was sorie hadn't been doing it before it was a world of difference in terms of atmosphere unlike making documentaries you construct who live here and you're in charge and this is a responsible job but it's very exciting. it's like in our time it was said about television a friend of mine said this once he said it was going to be cooler than t.v. news analysis but what can be even cooler is synthesis.

there is one more thing i tell my students and young film directors if someone tries to make a film once in he's or her on if no matter at what age i can guarantee one hundred percent he or she would never give it up even though he or she has never done it before but when you get. there is it possible to return to making documentary films for making feature phelps a certain point. you know i have a workshop. where we try to choose filmmaking not only all future films which that is my students make two three owns each year want documentary and one feature it's a very interesting experience. and i believe it is necessary now i want to make two documentaries one about that the new protests. and prominent

theatrical direct turn in the other one. i knew well there's not been a single film about him and that's what i'm saying but i tried so many times to get into he's a rehearsal but he would mean yet if he's saying all these actors would dream of getting into my movie i can only wish him good luck thank you very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guest today was a film director as. the edge has been chosen as the russian army for the last time that's a foot out from all of us here will be back with more until the end stage r.t. and take a that's about.

dear mom i'm sorry that i had to do this i've been in so much pain in the past year that i can't take it anymore the stomach and chest pains have been getting worse and no doctor has been able to help me please know that i'll finally be at peace and with no more pain i wish i could have had a life with it was a bit always pictured her being my wife and mother to my kids i love you all see you all in heaven when your time comes i'm going to meet jesus christ. thousands of u.s. troops in iraq received one of these drugs a drug called lariam and it may have prevented many soldiers from getting sick the question tonight is whether or not soldiers were adequately warned about it's rare side effects serious life change and side effects. there is not enough space for them on the ground. down to.

get things nonexistent under the sun. through the gap of adrenaline. discovered deeply hidden secrets. they are seeking. and even. under the. human. passenger liner sailing in the black sea. august thirty first. it's. twenty three twenty. four kilometers off shore. crashes into another vessel. four hundred twenty three people die.

from our studios in central moscow this is our broadcasting twenty four hours a day. russia and a nato joint forces to destroy heroin and opium the labs in afghanistan wiping out fifty million dollars worth of narcotics the operation came as a result of increased pressure from moscow to block the flood of heroin. after months of planning. near the border with pakistan took less than. reports georgia has rounded up twenty people allegedly russian spy network. yet to confirm the report. in russia and georgia were severed in two thousand and

eight following the war and. the european union agreed to a new financial bailout system with major players tired of paying for. blunders the plan includes a permanent fund to aid the euro in times of crisis it also gives you the power to scrutinize member states national budgets. and coming up next we follow a quest for the truth undertaken by the parents of a u.s. soldier whose death was blamed on drug abuse but turned out to be caused by medicine prescribe by his superiors. a moment with you. live in a longtime.