NEWS

The meeting was held  by Ekaterina Barabanova , deputy Chairman of the State Committee on Tourism of the Republic of Tatarstan, Oksana Sargina, Director of Tourism Development Center and Arthur Abdrashitov , the head of department of tourism industry development.

Development of cooperation is a reliable mechanism for the strengthening of strategic Russian-Chinese relations. President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov said it at a meeting of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and Vice-premier of the State Council of China Wang Yan with the heads of regions and companies of Russia and China. The meeting was held in the framework of the II Russian-Chinese Expo in Harbin (China).

The 11th Kazan Muslim Film Festival concludes. Tonight, the official closing ceremony will take place at Kamal Theatre, winners will be pronounced.

Competition and the parallel programme shows took place during last week on six sites in Kazan simultaneously. The public’s attention was particularly drawn to the nominees, all competition shows at Kazan’s Rodina cinema enjoying full house and seeing an over a 12-thousand audience.

Film critics from national and foreign publications earlier in the day voiced their assessments of the 11th Kazan Muslim Film Festival.

“This year the competition programme has been a great success: nearly all pictures have been masterpieces,” Moscow journalist, political scientist and blogger Daria Mitina noted. “I have more than once said and am not afraid to repeat that Kazan Film Festival is one of the best world festivals and probably the first among the Russian ones.”

Following film critics, film directors and crew and cast members of the full-length films shown the day before gathered at the press centre’s round table. Iraqi film director, scriptwriter and producer of A Face in Ashes Shahawan Idres, Iranian Mojtaba Amini, the producer of the film Boundless, director of The Well Mansur Wasati of Uzbekistan, and others, spoke about their works.

The programme at Rodina concluded with a gala premiere of Rent Ayupov’s White Flowers. The audience of the film based on Abdurakhman Absalyamov’s eponymous novel was nearly one thousand. The show took place in all of the cinema’s five halls simultaneously, which turned out to be not enough to accommodate all visitors.

The Kinomax cinema featured a film by Russian director Efim Glebov The Taste of America, presented within the festival’s out-of-competition programme by producer Alexander Lubelsky and film’s star Semen Strugachev.

“The whole of Russia thinks of me as the character in the Specifics of National Hunting film. But as soon as I read the Ulitskaya’s novel, I decided it was the story about me,” the actor shared. “This is why the film is infinitely dear to me. I did everything that depended on me for it: learned English for the shooting in America, learned to dance the tango, even lost 15 kilos in ten days,” Strugachev shared.

A training course Film Time continues at the Kazan’s Mir cinema. Tonight, it will conclude with a short-length film made by laboratory participants in six days, the festival’s press service has said.

A children’s museum centre opened earlier in the day in Sviyazhsk with the participation of Tatarstan State Counsellor and Revival Foundation board of trustees chairman Mintimer Shaimiev.

“A unique children’s museum and, most importantly, a theme one. It fits in very well with the island of Sviyazhsk, and Alexander Pushkin’s and poet Kayum Nasyri’s works for children,” Mintimer Shaimiev assessed the centre after a tour.

The state counsellor went on to note the offered amusements had been much liked by children. “The display is arranged well. Children had to be looked for, as they all scattered around the building,” he described the children’s enthusiasm.

The facility is designed for tourists travelling with pre-school and elementary-school aged children. For the sightseeing time, parents can leave their children in the care of a teacher.

The centre is a place for children’s cultural and artistic development. Owing to specialised installations, an interactive game area and museum’s teaching plans, the centre allows its young visitors to learn the local cultural intangible asset, Russian and Tatar fairy tales. 

At 11 am on 15 August, Manege exhibition hall launches a new wool painting master class called Fluffy Watercolours, the hall’s press centre has said.

Without brushes, colours and water, visitors will be able to create warm, soft and cozy pictures by putting layers of coloured sheep wool.

Over the course of the work one gets the sensation one sees a real watercolour painted by a talented artist, while subjects may vary from landscapes to cartoon characters to flowers, animals and others. The class is an excellent opportunity to for self-expression and relieving the everyday stress, museum’s staff are convinced. 

Kazan will, for the first time, host the Paris Seasons short-length film festival. The shows will take place within a large tour of Russia. The festival will begin on 6 August at the Mir cinema, the Tatarkino’s press service has said.

The Paris Seasons’s programme includes 25 pictures in four categories.

Interestingly, the festival unites film directors of various nationalities and their works revolving around one subject, Paris.

“The films dwell on the life of Paris in all its social strata. The audience will see Paris as it is today, discovering their own life’s similarity with the life of Parisians, their ambitions, dreams and the small joys of every day,” festival’s director general Marianna Lansakya shared.

The programme in Kazan will be in the original language with Russian subtitles. Each festival day will present one category of films. The schedule is available at the cinema’s website. The cost of ticket is 200 roubles.

 As compared with the first half of 2014, tourist traffic to the ancient city of Bolgar had grown by 51 percent, Tatarstan State Committee for Tourism chief Sergei Ivanov said at a press conference at Tatar-inform earlier in the day.

According to the committee, 154 thousand people have visited the reserve museum in the first six months of 2015.

This year, an influx of tourists is expected owing to the holding of the 16th world aquatics championship. Daily, several buses carrying athletes and foreign delegations travel to the ancient capital of Volga Bulgaria. The bus and river passenger service is regular.

A high-speed craft travels daily between Kazan and Bolgar, performing three trips a day Friday to Sunday.

Many come on their personal transport, including from neighbouring regions.

The tourist traffic has somewhat increased owing to the aquatics championship in Kazan.

Sergei Ivanov went on to say on 14-16 August the Bolgar reserve museum would host one of Russia’s largest historical reconstruction festivals, The Great Bolgar. It would have a positive influence on tourist traffic as well, he suggested.