Rusalka (Mermaid) is a film about an introverted girl from a seaside village who has lost her ability to speak. When her village is destroyed by a cyclone, she moves to Moscow with her mother and grandmother.
At the age of 17 and struggling with the pitfalls of life in the big city, she finds a simple job that doesn't require her to speak to people: handing out leaflets wearing an oversized cell-phone costume. But when she falls in love with Alexander her life takes a different turn.
The movie was chosen from eight contenders by a secret ballot that followed an open discussion. Only films released in Russia from October 1, 2007, to September 30, 2008, could be nominated for the world's most prestigious movie awards.
Russian movies have so far received six Oscars: "Moscow Strikes Back," a documentary by Leonid Varlamov and Ilya Kopalin (1942); "War and Peace" by Sergei Bondarchuk (1968), "Dersu Uzala" by Akira Kurosawa (joint Soviet-Japanese production, 1975); "Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears" by Vladimir Menshov (1980); "Burnt By the Sun" by Nikita Mikhalkov (1994); and "The Old Man and the Sea," a short animated movie by Alexander Petrov (1999).
By RIA Novosti
Anna Melikyan is originally from Armenia. Annual International Film Festival GOLDEN APRICOT was established in 2004 in Yerevan, the capital of the Republic of Armenia, by the “Golden Apricot” Fund for Cinema Development, the Armenian Association of Film Critics and Cinema Journalists, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, the Ministry of Culture of Republic of Armenia and Benevolent Fund for Cultural Development. The organizers of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival are: Harutyun Khachatryan, Film Director and Festival Director; Mikayel Stamboltsyan, Film Critic and Program Director; and Susanna Harutyunyan, Film Critic and Artistic Director. Internationally acclaimed Canadian-Armenian director Atom Egoyan was named President of the festival since 2005.
The Golden Apricot International Film Festival carries the theme Crossroads of Cultures and Civilizations. The title may well serve as our impassioned mantra for building cultural bridges and fostering dialogue. It also reflects the history of Armenia itself, which for millennia has existed as a flash point for competing geopolitical forces. Armenia's desirable geographic position has made it into a bone of contention for various empires, but has, on the other hand, resulted in a civilization replete with world influences and a dynamic arts heritage. We welcome films representing diverse ethnic groups, religions, and nations that depict the human experience, the daily lives of people, ordinary and extraordinary, their troubles and their joys, as they try to find meaning in a changing world; as they struggle to redefine themselves in a world that recognizes fewer and fewer boundaries.
