Russian film about Crimea crisis receives state funding

A film about Russia’s annexation of Crimea has secured funding and is set to hit Russian cinema screens in November 2015. The film, which recently changed its working title from Going Home to The Sea Runs High, is set between Kiev and Crimea and follows characters dealing with the annexation of Crimea and the political unrest that followed in the region.

“In the script there’s Crimea, Kiev, love, hate, friendship and learning. The protagonists are very young people, but I can’t uncover the plot. I was there in February and early March. I saw it all with my own eyes,” said the screenwriter, Sergei Shargunov.

Local film stars will be invited to audition for characters in the film according to Shargunov, who told newspaper Izvestia that casting would begin in the next two months. The film’s producer Anatoly Sivushov has confirmed that the first draft of the script has been approved, though additions and amendments will likely be made once filming begins.

Having received $1m from an undisclosed source, the film is also set to receive a further $3m from the Ministry of Culture and its Cinema Fund, according to Sivushov.

Following the start of the Ukraine crisis, a number of initiatives from members of Russia’s film industry have exposed a creative class divided by political events, with open letters written both in favour and against the Russian government’s military intervention of Ukraine signed by prominent members of the Russia’s community. In July, the Ministry of Culture announced plans to launch a new film festival devoted exclusively to “patriotic” cinema in the Crimean city of Simferopol this autumn.