Film by director from Nalchik causes critics' controversy at "Kinotavr"

A film in the Kabardian language "Deep Rivers" made by Vladimir Bitokov, a film director from Nalchik, received the prize of the "Kinotavr" Film Festival for the best debut and polar opinions of critics. The film director himself believes that residents of Kabardino-Balkaria can give a strict assessment of his film.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the 29th "Kinotavr" Film Festival was held in Sochi on June 2-10. The main prize was awarded to the film "The Heart of the World" by Natalia Meschaninova, a native of Krasnodar.

The film "Deep Rivers" tells about a family living in the mountains and earning their living by cutting woods. The story is focused on the conflict among three brothers and their relationships with their father.

"The conflict stems from the differences of brothers' tempers. The European and the Russian societies are more tolerant to various tempers, while the Caucasian one is very conservative and less tolerant; therefore, a weak brother automatically is treated as a weakling," Vladimir Bitokov has explained.

According to the film plot, the youngest brother lives in the city, separately from the family. "It is clear that nobody had ever spoke to him in the family ... In the Caucasian society this is a common thing – when family members have no mutual understanding and talks about inner feelings," the film director believes, noting that the relationships of the loggers' family with other villagers in his film can be a sort of a projection of the relationships of Kabardino-Balkaria with the rest of Russia.

"There is a fairly aggressive environment, and there is a small republic," Mr Bitokov said, adding that he would like to show his film in Kabardino-Balkaria, but he fears that viewers may treat the film as criticism of the life in his republic.