Kin-dza-dza!
Science fiction pushes the boundaries, explores the improbable, and envisions the future of humanity. It also exposes us to extravagant visual effects and the inventive power of cinema, reflecting our deepest fantasies. In cinema, science fiction is immersive, creating worlds suddenly within our reach. This summer, over one hundred films from the history of cinema will allow us to witness this!
Two average Muscovites – a plainspoken construction foreman and a Georgian violin student – encounter an odd homeless man on the street who asks, “Tell me the number of your planet in the Tentura?”. In a flash, they’re teleported across the universe to the planet Pluke in the Kin-dza-dza galaxy – a Tatooine-like desert world whose inhabitants are hilariously noncommunicative (their main words are “ku” for good and “kyu” for very bad) and where common wooden matches are tremendously valuable.
Georgiy Daneliya
Georgiy Daneliya was a Georgian, Soviet, and Russian film director and screenwriter. He was the son of filmmaker Meri Andjaparidze, nephew of director Mikheil Chiaureli, and cousin of actress Sofiko Chiaureli. Daneliya studied directing at the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors at the Mosfilm studios. He graduated with a short film titled Also People, inspired by an excerpt from Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace (1959). The following year, he co-directed his first feature film, Splendid Days, with Igor Talankin, which won the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Benefiting from the political context of the time, Walking the Streets of Moscow garnered public acclaim for its lively and impressionistic depiction of life in Moscow. His next film, Thirty Three, more clearly defined his profile as an ironic and sometimes satirical poet, a keen analyst of the social psychology of his contemporaries. However, these qualities were not always appreciated by the authorities, who refused to distribute this film. Despite this, Afonya (1975), Mimino (1977), and Autumn Marathon (1979) continued to exploit this vein with great success. He is also the author of a cult science fiction film in Russia, Kin-dza-dza! (1986), which he adapted into an animated film in 2013.
