Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

I am delighted to welcome all of you here tonight. This is the first official event for a large audience that we are hosting this year, and I am glad that this event is from the mesmerizing Movie World. Later this spring we plan to bring even more new and even better films to Scotland from Russia with love, so I hope we will have more chances to meet each other again soon.

And now, please, let me use this opportunity to read a brief welcoming address by HE Ambassador of Russia to the UK Alexander Yakovenko who was so pleased with his recent visit to Scotland and the talk he gave at University of Edinburgh that he put a lot of efforts to support this screening tonight.

 

Dear friends,

Today is a big day for Russian cinema in Britain, as the film Attraction is released on 99 screens throughout the country. It’s not common for a subtitled movie to have such a wide release, but this film is uncommon in several ways. It was made by Fyodor Bondarchuk, son of Sergey Bondarchuk who got an Oscar for his “War and Peace”, and himself is a very successful film producer. This is the first Russian alien invasion movie and consequently the first film where aliens land not in New York, London or Edinburgh but on a rough Moscow estate. This is also a film praised worldwide for its creative visual effects, but it cost just about £4 million to make.

This is what makes Attraction uncommon. But it’s also a story of things we have in common: fear of the unknown, the difficulty of understanding others, sense of belonging - to your family, your friends, your neighbourhood. This is what people feel in Moscow, in London, in Edinburgh - and definitely even in Highlands! Sometimes it takes extraordinary circumstances to understand ordinary things.

Russian filmmakers are not afraid to tackle the challenges young people are facing. This is why Attraction is relevant everywhere.

Before the light goes off I’d like to add that the film, especially the original Russian theatre version, also speaks about the power of social media in spreading a message - for the better or for the worse. It would be great if you could also spread the word and tell us on social media how you feel about tonight’s movie - I’m @Amb_Yakovenko on Twitter, the Embassy is @RussianEmbassy and the Consulate General in Edinburgh is @RusCG_Edinburgh.

Thank you and enjoy.

 

Let me, please, join the Ambassador by saying  - thank you for coming! I would also like to add that we are very grateful to Princess Dashkova Centre at the University of Edinburgh for their kind support in arranging the event and special thanks to the Edinburgh Cineworld IMAX for receiving us.

I wish you a pleasant evening!