PARADISE

Director - Andrei Konchalovsky

Script - Andrei Konchalovsky, Elena Kiselyeva

Camera - Aleksander Simonov

Music - Sergey Shustitsky

Cast - Julia Vysotskaya, Christian Clauß, Philippe Duquesne, Victor Sukhorukov, Peter Kurth, Jakob Diehl, Vera Voronkova

Producers - Andrei Konchalovsky, Florian Deyle

Production - The Andrei Konchalovsky Production Center, DRIFE Filmproduktion

Paradise tells the compelling story of three individuals, Olga, Jules and Helmut, whose paths cross amidst the devastation of war.

Olga, a Russian aristocratic immigrant and member of the French Resistance, is arrested by Nazi police for hiding Jewish children during a surprise raid. As her punishment, she is sent to jail where she meets Jules, a French-Nazi collaborator who is assigned to investigate her case. Jules grows fond of Olga and offers to go light on her punishment in exchange for sexual favours. Although Olga agrees, and will do whatever it takes to avoid harsh persecution, her hope for freedom quickly fades when events take an unexpected turn.

Shipped to a concentration camp, Olga is forced into a life of hell. To her surprise, she crosses paths with high-ranking German SS officer Helmut, who once fell madly in love with her and still harbours feelings. They re-kindle their old flame and embark on a twisted and destructive relationship. Helmut resolves to rescue Olga and offers her an escape that she no longer thought possible. Yet as time passes, and the fate of Nazi defeat looms, Olga's notion of Paradise is irrevocably changed.

“It’s very important to like characters, because it’s easy to show a Nazi who is an animal, or a sadist or a terrible person, or something. You immediately sense, he’s bad. Evil is a much more sophisticated thing. If all dressed as evil openly, who would go and follow them? Basically, people usually follow someone who gives them a great illusion of something good. And that’s important for me to understand. I like all these three characters and I like their collaboration and I like this Nazi officer, and it’s exactly because I like them that I’m suffering.

Very often in life you like a person, and if you love a person, and a person does terrible things, you don’t stop loving them for that. You just suffer. I think audiences shouldn’t be given pre-digested truths. The audience should come into the seduction of the character. It’s like a big novel, in it you can have wonderful characters that are totally wrong."

Andrei Konchalovsky for Huffington Post

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS -

Venice '16 – Silver Lion for Best Director Chicago '16 – Founder's Award Gijón '16 – Best Actress (Julia Vysotskaya), Best Cinematography, Youth Jury Award for Best Film Mar del Plata'16 – Best Screenplay Hof'16 – Best Costume Design, Best Setting

Program

21.03.2017
”LUMIERE LIDL” CINEMA - 20.45 часа
23.03.2017
CULTURE CENTER “G8” - 21.15 часа
22.03.2017
CINEMA ODEON - 20.30 часа
18.03.2017
CINEMA CITY MALL OF SOFIA - 21.00 часа
19.03.2017
CINEMA ARENA DELUX BULGARIA MALL - 21.00 часа
17.03.2017
CINE GRAND PARK CENTER - 19.00 часа
20.03.2017
EURO CINEMA - 19.45 часа

Andrei Konchalovsky

Andrei Sergeevich Konchalovsky was born in Moscow on 20 August 1937 into the family of well-known authors Sergey Mikhalkov and Natalia Konchalovskaya. He graduated from the Central Music School in 1952 and from the music college of the Moscow Conservatory in 1957. From 1957 to1959 he studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory. He completed his cinema studies in 1965 and graduated in directing from the All Russian State Institute of Cinematography, where he'd studied under Mikhail Romm. During his studies he had minor roles in a couple of films. He also co-wrote the screenplay for Ivan's Childhood with Andrei Tarkovsky. In 1965, inspired by the work of Akira Kurosawa, the director made The First Teacher and then The Story of Asya Klyachina (1966). In 1969 the director decided to turn to classics, starting with А Nest of Gentry. This was followed by Uncle Vanya (1970), which was awarded the Silver Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

His film A Lover's Romance, released in 1974, was a huge success and received the Grand Prix at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. His epic film Siberiade was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 1979 Cannes Festival. In 1980, having been granted the title of People's Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Konchalovsky decided to head West, to work in Hollywood. It was there, in fact, that he made films that have become classics, renowned across the globe: Maria's Lovers (1985), Runaway Train (1985), Homer and Eddie (1990), and the American blockbuster Tango & Cash (1989), starring Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell.

In the early 90s, he returned to Russia and published two autobiographies. The 1997 TV-series The Odyssey, produced by Konchalovsky and starring Armand Assante, became the most expensive television series to date. At the 59th Venice International Film Festival, 2002, Konchalovsky's film House of Fools was awarded the Grand Special Jury Prize. In 2010 he made The Nutcracker in 3D, a fantasy film with a $90 million budget. In September 2014, at the 71st Venice Film Festival, his film The Postman's White Nights received the Best Director award.

FILMOGRAPHY

1961 The Boy and the Pigeon (Malchik I golub) – short
1965 The First Teacher (Pervyy uchitel)
1966 The Story of Asya Klyachina (Istoriya Asi Klyachinoy, kotoraya lyubila, da ne vyshla zamuzh)
1969 A Nest of Gentry (Dvoryanskoe gnezdo)
1971 Uncle Vanya (Dyadya Vanya)
1974 A Lover's Romance (Romans o vlyublyonnykh)
1979 Siberiade (Sibiriada)
1982 Split Cherry Tree – short
1984 Maria's Lovers
1985 Runaway Train
1986 Duet for One
1987 Shy People
1989 Homer and Eddie
1989 Tango & Cash
1991 The Inner Cicle
1994 Ryaba My Chicken (Kurochka Ryaba)
1995 Lumière and Company – doc.
1997 The Odyssey – TV series, 2 episodes
2002 House of Fools (Dom durakov)
2003 The Lion in Winter – TV movie
2007 To Each His Own Cinema (Chacun son cinéma) – segment “Dans le Noir” - doc.
2007 Gloss (Glyanets)
2010 The Nutcracker in 3D
2014 The Postman's White Nights (Belye nochi pochtalona Alekseya Tryapitsyna)
2014 Battle for Ukraine (Bitva za Ukrainu) – doc.
2016 Paradise (Ray)

PARADISE / РАЙ

131′, 2, Russia-Germany, color, black and white, цветен

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS -

Program

Andrei Konchalovsky