Kantemir Balagov's film awarded at Cannes Film Festival

The documentary film "Tightness", which tells about the Jewish family from Nalchik, won the prize of the International Federation of Film Press. The film was presented in the second by importance contest programme "A Special Look" of the Cannes Film Festival.

"Thank you for letting this story touching you and for you not turning away from it. I really hope that this award will affect the creation of cinematography in Northern Caucasus," the "Interfax" quotes director Kantemir Balagov as saying at today's awarding ceremony.

The film by Balagov is dedicated to a Jewish family, who went at fight with bandits of Nalchik after the kidnapping of their younger son and his bride.

The film has a fragment, where teenagers watch a video in which Chechen militants cut off Russians' heads. "These are memories of my childhood. We were 12-13 years old then, and cassettes with this video were given from hand to hand. It was important for me to show this atmosphere; and to emphasize the multinational nature of the world we live in," the "Around TV" edition quotes the film director.

Kantemir Balagov believes that his film will not be accepted in his homeland, in Northern Caucasus. "Residents there are not ready to watch themselves from aside; they are concerned about honour and dignity, although these two notions are already very far from them. When you show something from aside, they react very painfully," he said.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.