THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A new Malayalam translation of Anton Chekhov’s works, screenings of classic Russian films, and an Olympiad for school children are part of this year’s Festival of Russian Language and Literature which has opened in the state capital.
The sixth edition of the festival is on till December 24, and the screenings of several classic Russian films will be held this week. The Road to Berlin, a World War II themed-classic produced by Mosfilm, is the inaugural film.
Other selections include Diamond Arm, a 1969 Mosfilm film production directed by Leonid Gaidai. This comedy was based on a real-life incident about Swiss smugglers who tried to sneak in diamonds using an orthopaedic cast. Battleship Potemkin, the 1925 classic directed by Sergei Eisenstein, and often referred to as the greatest film of all time, is also been screened.
The Malayalam translation of Chekhov’s works will include 12 of his short stories, said Ratheesh C Nair, honorary consul of Russia in Thiruvananthapuram and director, Russian Cultural Centre. The translation is being brought out by the Pushkin Centre for Russian Language at the Russian Cultural Centre. This is the sixth edition of the Russian Language and Literature Festival in Thiruvananthapuram, which has been selected a permanent venue for the initiative aimed at promoting Russian language, literature and culture in India.
As the festival enters its sixth edition, the response in Thiruvananthapuram has been encouraging, Ratheesh C Nair said. “People in India, and especially Kerala, are familiar with the pre-Soviet and Soviet-era writers like Maxim Gorky, Pushkin or Dostoevsky. But there is little awareness about contemporary Russian writers. This festival is a way to introduce them here. The festival is an opportunity for Keralites who wish to know more about the Russian literature and language,” he said.
The event, which kicked off on December 14, is organised jointly by the Russkiy Mir Foundation, Moscow, the Honorary Russian Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram and the Pushkin Centre for Russian Language.
Dr K Jayakumar, vice chancellor, Thunchathu Ezhuthachchan Malayalam University, inaugurated the festival the other day. This year, an ‘Olympiad’ - consisting of competitions for school children - and a series of seminars on the relevance of the Russian language in various sectors are also being held.