MOSCOW, July 5Information about the proposal to remake Soviet films that have become classics is unreliable; the Ministry of Culture was given a list of masterpieces of Russian cinema, familiarity with which is important for the education of young people, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation reported.
Earlier, the press service of the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation reported that the Department of Cinematography and Digital Development of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation submitted to the union proposals from the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation to create remakes of the famous Soviet films “The Cranes Are Flying” and “Alexander Nevsky”, as well as film adaptations of the works of Leo Tolstoy and Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Mikhail Prishvin.
“The information about remakes of domestic films is not reliable. As a matter of routine, the Ministry of Culture was given a list of masterpieces of domestic cinema, familiarity with which is important for the education of the younger generation,” the message says.
It is clarified that the proposal contains the idea of a possible new film adaptation of classic works using modern means of domestic cinema. “The list is intended for discussion by the expert community,” the ministry added.
The list of books proposed for film adaptation included Tolstoy’s “Sevastopol Stories”, Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matryona’s House”, “Girls from Vasilievsky Island” by Yuri Yakovlev, “The Blue Dragonfly” by Prishvin and works by 12 other Russian and Soviet writers. The list included 19 books in total.
Among the cult films, the list of films includes Sergei Eisenstein's film «Alexander Nevsky», films by Sergei Gerasimov based on the historical novel by Alexei Tolstoy «Peter I», the children's film «Dagger», Mikhail Sholokhov's novel «The Fate of a Man» adapted by Sergei Bondarchuk, a film based on the story by Boris Vasiliev “Tomorrow there was a war”, as well as “The Cranes Are Flying” by Mikhail Kalatozov. The list includes more than 30 films from classics of Russian cinema.
The press service of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia also reported that the organization is not involved in film production, but is ready to provide expert support to these projects — primarily through the Guild of Screen Writers.