Karen Shaknazarov Photo: RIA Novosti
By Olga Bugrova, The Russian Oscar committee has chosen Karen Shaknazarov's film White Tiger to seek an Oscar in the best foreign language film nomination. This is the third attempt made by prominent Russian director Karen Shakhnazarov to win the world’s most prestigious film award. Previously, the director had a try with the 1988 movie Gorod Zero (Zero City), and with his screen adaptation of Chekhov's Ward No. 6 in 2009. Shakhnazarov describes White Tigeras a mystical WW II drama in which he makes a kind of a research into the nature of war and tries to answer the question whether people can do without wars or they are inseparable parts of the human nature. “When you make a film it is necessary to feel the story itself. This time I got inspired by Ilya Boyashov's novel Tankman or White Tiger. This is a mystical story happening in context of war,” Shakhnazarov says. The film has already been premiered in Russia as well as at some festivals abroad. The audiences seem to like the film, although this does not seem to matter a lot to the Academy Award. Film critic Valery Kichin: “Members of the Award Academy are so unpredictable. Sometimes I think that they watch only the most popular films. If they view White Tigeras a dark horse in the Oscar race its chances to win will be quite low. By the way, among those films discussed by members of the Russian Oscar committee were some outstanding works, including Sokurov`sFaust and Zvyagintsev`s Elena – the first one won Golden Lion in Venice while the second grabbed the Special Jury Prize in Cannes. Nevertheless, this timeWhite Tigerwas selected, probably because of its unusual and intriguing genre. The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be revealed on January 10. Source: Voice of Russia
