This is the first time that so representative a Russian film family has come to Berlin: Pyotr Todorovsky, Mira Todorovsky and Valery Todorovsky - father, mother and son. The Land of the Deaf, by Valery Todorovsky screens in competition today, while Retro Vtroem (Menage a trois), directed by Pyotr and produced by Mira's Mirabel company, is being screened in the Panorama section on Sunday.
Pyotr Todorovsky, 72, is a veteran of Soviet cinema, with 1966's Loyalty winning that year's Venice film festival. Todorovksy's films, which also include classics such as The Town Romance, A Juggler and Intergirl all in some way reminisce about his early life. "It's true, I always tell stories about myself, my own feelings and emotions," he says, "but Retro Vtroem is actually based on the life of the famous Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, and also on Abram Room's Soviet silent film Tretya Meshchanskaya. Having said that, I certainly put some of my own life experiences into it as well."
Valery Todorovsky, whose film Love won the ecumenical prize at Cannes in 1992, shares his father's love for the human interest story. Despite The Land of the Deaf's serious appraisal of Moscow's criminal milieu, he hopes that the Panorama film will give "the overall impression of being lyrical and moving".
Pyotr, 35, whose previous work includes The Hearse and Moscow Suburb Nights, is passionate about the revival of Russian cinema. "Within the next two years our film industry will get out of this rut," he claims. "What we have to do primarily is to put the legal aspects in order, and stop video piracy... Russia's population is 200 million, and all we need is for 10% of the population to go to the cinema once a week. If that happens, this industryill become a gold mine." Yevgeniya Tirdatova