International Edge of the World filmfest to open on Sakhalin Friday

The 3rd international Edge of the World film festival opens on the Sakhalin Islan on Friday. The main competitve programme includes nine films, in the production of which film makers from ten countries participated. A meeting of the guests on the "star carpet" and the festival's opening ceremony will be held in the square outside the Sakhalin's international theatre center named after Anton P. Chekhov. Then cinema-goers will be able to see the first film, "Girld and Bicycle". Alexei Agranovich, the festival's general producrr, populat actor and film director, has told Itar-Tass in an exclusive intrrview thst the the event which will begin here on Friday night is a hundred percent "festival for the viewing audience". "This is not a get-together for bohemian cinematographers. It is not a place for an idle entertainment of the popular masses. This event is for the audience, for people whose inner attitude and perception of environment can be characterized as 'personal involvement'. We want to show cinematography as an art, not a side show,"Agranovich said. The programme of the Edge of the World film festival includes tens of films from various countires. Many picutres were already show in various international reviews while some are to make a debut in Sakhalin festival. The festival's jury includes prominent cinema professionals -- film director Pavel Chukhrai, as chairman of the jury, actress Victoria Tolstoganova, and film director Alla Surikova, honorary president of the festival. Lyudmila Shapka, press attache of the festival, said an open-air show of films would be arranged at the festival for thef irst time. "There will be also roundtabe meetings to discuss the films shown; master classes by guests -- film directors, masters of assembling, and cameramen. Anyone wishing so will be able to participate in the roundtable meetings and master classes," she related.