A Russian-American film, "Black Prince," won the Grand Jury for best feature film at the New York International Independent Film Festival

Thursday, September 19, 2019

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The film, which was directed by Anatoly Ivanov, is about Alexander Pushkin and modern Pushkin scholars. Events form the 19th and the 21st centuries are interwoven in the film. It stars Ray Charles Jr., the son of the famous singer and pianist, as an African-American historian, and ballerina Anastasia Volochkova as a stranger from St. Petersburg. They both love Pushkin's poetry and St. Petersburg. In the part of the film during Pushkin's life, Anastasia Volochkova plays the poet's wife. Georgian actor Levani Uchanishvili plays Pushkin. The film was filmed over a year in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Bakhchisarai, Moldova and California. Ray Charles composed the music to the film. "The Grand Jury Prize of the New York independent film festival is a recognition by professionals and is especially valuable because Russian films did not win at foreign contests in the past few years," Mr. Ivanov said. "Apart from that, the prize promises good distribution for the 'Black Prince' in the United States. I have already received more than a dozen offers." In regard to the director's future plans, he said he intended to start preparations for a film about a legendary and scandalous dancer, Rudolf Nuriyev (1938-1993). Mr. Ivanov plans to offer Johnny Depp the role.