The Kazakh director Farkhat Sharipov and the actresses Natalia Vitmer, Evdokiya Skirta and Ekaterina Balakshiy introduced the film Evacuation participating in the Main Competition of 47th Moscow International Film Festival.
The film action focuses on the evacuation of people to Eastern regions of the Soviet Union from the regions under the threat of the German Fascist occupation. In those years Kazakhstan hosted 1.5 million people and remains home for many people until today. The main characters of the film are Natalya and her daughter Galya who are moving eastwards together with other evacuees. In the fuss, Natalya loses the girl at one of the railway stations and sets off to look for her in Almaty packed with evacuees.
Farkhat Sharipov: "We spent a long time making this film, we began filming in 2019, then we took a pause and tried hard to finish it for a long time, and only in January we did reshoots and completed the film, which was finally ready on the day the festival opened. The biggest challenge was to realize what the film must be about in the end. In my career, it often happens that external circumstances dictate the decision on the film ending. Here we had several options, but finally, I believe we made an ending intertwining with the present. We wrote the film scenario based on the Russian website iremember.ru where volunteers gathered lots of letters and diaries of the people who were at the Great Patriotic War. There were also evacuees' letters there who described their journeys. And we tried to restore the atmosphere of that time as true to life as possible using video archives."
Evdokiya Skirta: "People with whom I met at the set became almost family to me, we kept warm in the same wagon, it was very heartfelt. And I turned out to be part of the film by accident. I was six and I went to the film test with my mom and there Farkhat offered to test me for the role. Several days passed and they told me I was accepted, though I didn't even know how shooting worked".
Natalya Vitmer: "I grew up in Germany, but originally I am from Omsk, I once went there to see my grandmother and a casting agent unexpectedly texted me they were looking for the lead actress in Kazakhstan. I knew nothing about Kazakhstan at all and I thought then that this was some fake, but the casting agent persisted. I recorded the first video, and he asked me to shoot something heartfelt. And then the whole family got involved int the recording of the video, we shot it in one take, we sent it and they accepted me for the role, for which I am deeply grateful".
Ekaterina Balakshiy: "Although most of the shooting took place when it was cold, I remember it with great warmth and gratitude to the director, the whole team, the incredible crowd and my wonderful partners. I am very happy that this shooting brought me such a friend as Natalya and I hope our friendship will last for many years. This film makes our countries closer, we have our common history, our past and with the open ending Farkhat possibly showed our future. And I believe in our better future".
The film action focuses on the evacuation of people to Eastern regions of the Soviet Union from the regions under the threat of the German Fascist occupation. In those years Kazakhstan hosted 1.5 million people and remains home for many people until today. The main characters of the film are Natalya and her daughter Galya who are moving eastwards together with other evacuees. In the fuss, Natalya loses the girl at one of the railway stations and sets off to look for her in Almaty packed with evacuees.
Farkhat Sharipov: "We spent a long time making this film, we began filming in 2019, then we took a pause and tried hard to finish it for a long time, and only in January we did reshoots and completed the film, which was finally ready on the day the festival opened. The biggest challenge was to realize what the film must be about in the end. In my career, it often happens that external circumstances dictate the decision on the film ending. Here we had several options, but finally, I believe we made an ending intertwining with the present. We wrote the film scenario based on the Russian website iremember.ru where volunteers gathered lots of letters and diaries of the people who were at the Great Patriotic War. There were also evacuees' letters there who described their journeys. And we tried to restore the atmosphere of that time as true to life as possible using video archives."
Evdokiya Skirta: "People with whom I met at the set became almost family to me, we kept warm in the same wagon, it was very heartfelt. And I turned out to be part of the film by accident. I was six and I went to the film test with my mom and there Farkhat offered to test me for the role. Several days passed and they told me I was accepted, though I didn't even know how shooting worked".
Natalya Vitmer: "I grew up in Germany, but originally I am from Omsk, I once went there to see my grandmother and a casting agent unexpectedly texted me they were looking for the lead actress in Kazakhstan. I knew nothing about Kazakhstan at all and I thought then that this was some fake, but the casting agent persisted. I recorded the first video, and he asked me to shoot something heartfelt. And then the whole family got involved int the recording of the video, we shot it in one take, we sent it and they accepted me for the role, for which I am deeply grateful".
Ekaterina Balakshiy: "Although most of the shooting took place when it was cold, I remember it with great warmth and gratitude to the director, the whole team, the incredible crowd and my wonderful partners. I am very happy that this shooting brought me such a friend as Natalya and I hope our friendship will last for many years. This film makes our countries closer, we have our common history, our past and with the open ending Farkhat possibly showed our future. And I believe in our better future".