Tourism Breaking News
Russia’s capital city recently became a film set for the Indian action movie “The Greatest of All Time” by director Venkat Prabhu. The movie was shot on Red Square, in Lyalin and Maly Kazenny Lanes and on other Moscow streets. Here are some tips on some other places to visit in Moscow to feel like you are “in a movie”.
A guided tour of the legendary Mosfilm film studio can be no less impressive than Moscow’s classical museums and exhibitions. The grounds of the enormous film company are a genuine paradise for movie buffs and especially for connоisseurs of Soviet cinema, as almost all the best films from the Soviet period were made here. Mosfilm’s museum contains some genuine rarities, including a collection of retro cars, vintage carriages, movie props, costumes and bits of scenery, stands with rare camera equipment and even the original Worker and Kolkhoz Woman sculpture by Vera Mukhina – the studio’s familiar emblem. Open-air pavilions recreate for cinema the streets of old Saint Petersburg and pre-revolutionary Moscow, the Russian provinces and European cities.
A popular new location for cinema tourism recently appeared in Moscow – the enormous Moskino cinema park. The city authorities have given permission to develop 320 hectares of former wasteland and rubbish dumps to create this unique space for film production, featuring pavilions and locations for outdoor shoots. The complex has been designed so that Russian and foreign film directors can make films on absolutely any topic and find suitable historical film sets. Here, you can already take a walk around the streets of a 1940s town on the outskirts of Moscow, imagine yourself as a peasant in a small Russan village or a fisherman in a fishing port, or else as a resident of Wild West cowboy town. The Reichstag still stands on one cinema street, along with the still-intact wall dividing East and West Germany, and “bits” of European cities indistinguishable from the originals. In the near future, a 12th-century Kremlin will be added, along with medieval structures and pavilions representing a railway station and an airport. Indian film makers are already familiar with Moscow’s cinema sets, having noted its potential and even reached an agreement on an initial shoot. Tej Ahuja, chief executive of the Producers Guild of India, and producers Keyursinh Parmar, Ankur Garg , Yash Katira , Mukesh Jain and Bonnie Jain all visited Russia in April this year. According to the Indian experts, Moscow’s locations will be ideal for shooting Indian films of all genres, from blockbusters to thrillers, romances and family movies. Red Square, Moscow’s historical centre and grand country estates are perfectly suited for fantasy and romantic cinema, while contemporary Moscow-City with its skyscrapers is perfect for futuristic shoots.
The Mosfilm and Moskino cinema companies are happy to allow producers to “bring their own scenario and leave with a finished movie”, said the delighted Indian delegation.
Indian films have every chance of being included in the famous Moscow International Film Festival, which has been held in the Russian capital since 1935, making it the second-oldest film festival in the world after Venice. This year, India was represented by the Tamil melodrama “Seven Seas Seven Hills” from producer Ram, and by film critic Indu Shrikant, who was a member of the festival jury. One of the awards made by the jury went to “Need to Shoot Movies About Love”, a film which was shot in India and got a special commendation “For reflecting tenderness in the waters of the River Ganges”. Note to cinema buffs: the festival is held every year in Moscow around April and the festival films are shown in their original language with subtitles, which means that foreign visitors to the city are also keen to attend the premieres. Not only the Moscow International Film Festival but also many Moscow cinemas show films in their original language, and the cinema buildings themselves are often worth a guided tour. It is worth mentioning here the legendary pre-revolutionary Khudozhestvenny cinema, whose walls still remember Lev Tolstoy and Sergey Yesenin. The cinema has now been restored and is a very popular cultural landmark, which offers specially designed guided tours and, of course, the best films. The Illusion cinema, located within one of the famous Stalin skyscrapers, is a wonderful way of getting inside a Moscow architectural landmark. And in the GUM department store, you can watch a film right on Red Square – the historical cinema was built inside the shopping arcade and could be your only chance to watch a film in a plush velvet chair with crystal chandeliers and stucco moldings above your head, while being served champagne and cakes instead of popcorn and cola.
Cinema history also awaits you in the National Economic Achievements Exhibition, which your tour of Moscow is bound to take in sooner or later. Pop in to Pavilion 36, which contains a huge cinema museum with permanent and temporary exhibitions. The main treasure for cinema lovers in this museum is a reconstruction of the office of film director Sergey Eisenstein.
Moscow is absolutely a city of cinema. Over 90% of all Russian films are made here, amounting to about 260 projects every year. And it looks very much as if, in the near future, other Indian film crews will follow Venkat Prabhu’s path to Russia’s film sets, following several business missions to the city held by Moscow Agency of Creative Industries.
