Savva Koulish is a prominent Russian film director and a key figure in the domestic film community. He is a member of the Board of the Russian and Moscow Union of Filmmakers and head of the Guild of Moscow Film Directors. He also co-chairs the Movement for the Defence of Russian Culture with Rostislav Rostropovitch, the famous Russian musician and civil rights activist, and has taught for many years at Moscow's Film Academy (VGIK). Subs: please pad out this line
'I have the honour of belonging to a generation of staunch fighters for democracy, who raised their voices in the 1960s,' he says. Koulish has spent 38 out of his 60 years at Mosfilm Studios, where he began his career as a cameraman's assistant.
He says each of his seven features has been 'a memorable but painstaking experience, almost like delivering a baby'. His last film, The Iron Curtain, is the most expensive and longest 35mm feature produced in the former USSR in the last 10 years. It is an epic which follows the life of a Moscow family between 1947 and 1957. The film won the Best Actor's Debut at the domestic Sozvezdye Film Festival and the Film of the Year Special Award of the Moscow City Council.
This year Savva Koulish, co-founder of the Vyborg Festival, also became President of REKA (Russian European Cinema Association).
'We had a low-key start for the festival; it was a quiet event, even for this small town,' he says. 'Now it has become international. It has been very popular and successful. More industry people have attended, and still more want to come. Now we are thinking of expanding programmes, attendance and infrastructure.'
