The IFFM honors "My Russia" by Andrei Konchalovsky

This retrospective, entitled " The Russia of Andrei Konchalovsky," follows "the path of my Russia, as I understand it in my films that cover the main stages in Russian history," he said in an interview to the Press on the sidelines of the 8th edition of the IFFM.

"In my films I have no specific style but I still favor sarcasm to describe my romance for Russia," added the Russian director, for whom the language of films is "a secondary thing."

"We cannot become a slave to the language as it must serve the content," he explained.
Referring to the crisis in Russian cinema, Konchalovsky said that he was nostalgic for the Soviet era that saw the creation of film masterpieces, despite "censorship" at that time.

He stressed also the need to support film productions, noting in this regard that French cinema for example "exists because the state supports the production".

For him, the problem of the cinema lies in the attitude of an audience which is “increasingly young and superficial ", influenced by commercial films, especially American block busters.

Youth is  "immature" and too easily satisfied rather than looking for answers to existential questions, making it difficult to achieve great classics, he said, however “these young people will eventually find their way”.