The director Marina Maria Melnik introduced the film The Museum, which is part of the Documentary Film Competition of the 48th Moscow International Film Festival.
The film tells about the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, one of the brightest symbols of Russia's artistic heritage. Memories are consolidated in the objects people used throughout different eras. Each of them tells a story, which can touch the human heart and become something more than just an object. So can the place itself, a temple of art, it becomes not just walls and display cases, but a guardian of Russia's spiritual heritage.
Marina Maria Melnik: "The idea to make a film about the Pushkin Museum came to me from the 12 Kadrov film studio. As a native of Moscow, I was interested to take part in this project because it was sad there was no modern film about this museum. It was daunting to start, because I had to pass tests to all the curators. Fortunately, I did it. As a director, I decided to depict my conversations with the curators and museum staff through choreographed scenes. When we visited the museum as children, we paid attention to the form of the sculptures, and I think this perception is very close to that of the museum curators, who do not just work there but truly serve this temple of art. I turned for help to my friend, Vladimir Varnava, a choreographer, who brought artists from the Mariinsky Theatre and personally created and staged each choreographed episode. Together, we tried to make the integration of this dance spirit into the domain of a documentary film feel organic, so that dancing would not appear as a foreign element".
The film tells about the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, one of the brightest symbols of Russia's artistic heritage. Memories are consolidated in the objects people used throughout different eras. Each of them tells a story, which can touch the human heart and become something more than just an object. So can the place itself, a temple of art, it becomes not just walls and display cases, but a guardian of Russia's spiritual heritage.
Marina Maria Melnik: "The idea to make a film about the Pushkin Museum came to me from the 12 Kadrov film studio. As a native of Moscow, I was interested to take part in this project because it was sad there was no modern film about this museum. It was daunting to start, because I had to pass tests to all the curators. Fortunately, I did it. As a director, I decided to depict my conversations with the curators and museum staff through choreographed scenes. When we visited the museum as children, we paid attention to the form of the sculptures, and I think this perception is very close to that of the museum curators, who do not just work there but truly serve this temple of art. I turned for help to my friend, Vladimir Varnava, a choreographer, who brought artists from the Mariinsky Theatre and personally created and staged each choreographed episode. Together, we tried to make the integration of this dance spirit into the domain of a documentary film feel organic, so that dancing would not appear as a foreign element".