From October 10 to 12, Irkutsk will host the first international film festival of family and children's films Heart of Baikal. Viewers will enjoy free screenings in several cinemas, and meetings with Krzysztof Zanussi, Valery Zolotukhin, Vasily Lanovoy, Svetlana Svetlichnaya and other famous actors. The festival promises kind and positive films rarely shown widely, focused on family values, patriotism and love of the Motherland.

From October 10 to 12, Irkutsk will host the 1st International Film Festival of Family and Children’s Films, “Heart of Baikal.” This was announced at a press conference by Maria Tumanova, director of the “Heart of Baikal” film festival and executive director of the nationwide program “In the Circle of Family.”
As Maria Tumanova said, the international film festival is held within the framework of the nationwide program “In the Circle of Family,” which was created in 2004 with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia. Regional branches of the nationwide program have been opened in Irkutsk and 12 other cities in Russia.
On October 10, the festival president, renowned Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi, People’s Artists of Russia Valery Zolotukhin, Vasily Lanovoy, Svetlana Svetlichnaya, and many others will come to Irkutsk.
Free screenings will be held at the Irkutsk cinemas “Barguzin,” “Chaika,” and “Zvezdny,” where films for family viewing, children’s films, and animated pictures will be shown. All the films are participants in prestigious international film festivals. Krzysztof Zanussi will bring the film “Heart on the Palm” to Irkutsk.
Stars of cinema will hold creative meetings with students, veterans, and children from orphanages, and will also take part in the opening ceremony of a monument to the famous Russian director Leonid Gaidai.
“We hope that the film festival will become an annual, traditional event,” said Olga Aksamentova, head of the Department of Culture of the Irkutsk City Administration. “Very interesting, kind, positive films will be brought to Irkutsk, films that, as a rule, do not go into wide release because these motion pictures do not pursue commercial gain. They revive in people’s minds family values, patriotism, and love for their homeland.”
Based on materials from the press service of the Irkutsk City Administration