The representatives of «Pacific Meridian» festival walked the Red carpet of the festival in Berlin

The «Pacific Meridian» festival management continues to prepare the 9-th edition of the event. The first forum which the selection committee headed by Program director attended this year was the 61 edition of the Berlin International Film Festival.

The trend to progressive geopolitical cinema has always been the peculiarity of the Berlinale and this year's event was no exception. It was greatly influenced by the personality of the Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who had got a prison sentence for his public activity in his country, and thus he was unable to work on the festival jury.

No wonder that the winner of the 2011 Golden Bear was Jodaeiye Nader az Simin / Nader And Simin, A Separation/ by Asghar Farhadi, Jafar Panahi's compatriot. Best actor and Best actress prizes also went to the Iranian actors starring in that film. Europeans are very sensitive when it comes to the human rights violations, which explains their heightened interest in Khodorkovsky, the film directed by Cyril Tuschi, the man of Russian origin. The people flocked to the cinemas on the premiere day.

According to Yuri Goncharov, Program director of the «Pacific Meridian» festival, this film outshone the Russian social drama On Saturday directed by Alexander Mindadze and it didn't receive the due attention it deserved. The film is a story of Prypyat population the next day after the Chernobyl nuclear power station tragedy. On Saturday is most likely to be on a «Pacific Meridian» program and people will be able to enjoy the work of this outstanding filmmaker.

On the whole, all tickets were sold and cinemas were full. There were long lines at the box-offices of those wishing to see films. People arrived in the German capital from around the world. Even accredited festival guests were no exception. They had to queue up from the early morning in order to see the film they wanted to.

The European Film Market (EFM), the film trade fair integrated into the Berlinale has developed into one of the most important events for the international film business. Thanks to EFM 80 films were added to the selection fund of the «Pacific Meridian» festival. Now it contains over 150 films compared to 70 films the selection committee had to see last year.

New films from different countries keep coming to the Program department. The talks are being held with their legal owners. The festival program is being compiled. The department employees are sure that in early September, when the 9-th edition of the Pacific Meridian film festival takes place, there will be plenty of films for the people to choose from.