August 27 is the Russian Cinema Day, a professional holiday of film makers and a celebration for everyone who supports and loves Russian movies. International students of South Ural State University shared their emotions after watching Russian movies.
Center for Sociocultural Adaptation of the SUSU Institute of Linguistics and International Communications regularly holds classes for international students, where they are offered to watch Russian movies. Supervisor of the Center for Sociocultural Adaptation, Dina Valeeva, told us about the way such meetings go.
“We at the Center for Sociocultural Adaptation periodically organize screening of Russian movies, upload trailers to our Vkontakte group, and invite international students and our volunteers. Students like such movie screenings; there are always many of those willing to come. After watching a movie, we usually discuss it, ask about moments that the audience did or didn’t like, as well as which movies they usually like watching, which actors they do already know, which problems highlighted in the movie exist in their countries, and what are the ways to solve them.”
According to the supervisor, it is important for the Center of Sociocultural Adaptation’s employees that students understood cultural and social realities, and had a decent knowledge of Russian vocabulary, as this is a key to successful communication. Also, Dina Maratovna explained the criteria by which leadership of the Center selects movies to be screened.
“Without a doubt, the choice of the movies defines the opinion to be formed about our country; therefore we try to choose patriotic movies about Russia, such as Salyut-7, Legend No.17, Going Vertical, and the like. Our main goal is to cultivate love of Russia, tell more about our rich history, about our kind and smart people, about the ways that Russian people live. Also, international students enjoy watching Soviet films, most likely due to the fact that many students’ relatives studied in Russia in the USSR period, and had an extremely positive feedback about that time.”
A first-year student of the Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Muhammad Duhan, told us about his emotions after having watched Russian movies.
“I watched a couple of Russia movies: the Legend No.17 and the Salyut-7. The first movie was about hockey. To tell the truth, in our country hockey is not as popular as it is in Russia, but after watching this movie I liked this sport a lot. The second movie was about a space station called Salyut 7. I liked many things in the movie: life during the USSR, graphics in space, the main character and his temper.”
An attendee of Russian language courses at the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications, Omar Teyma got to love watching Russian movies when he started learning Russian language. He shared his emotions as well.
“The first movie that I watched was Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears. I liked the movie, it was very realistic. From that time, Soviet’s romanticism became my favorite genre. After that, I watched a movie about relationships between teenagers Vam I Ne Snilos (Love and Lies). It is a unique movie! Generally, I like movies narrating about families. For example, the Odnazhdy 20 Let Spustya (20 Years After). I also watched Walking the Streets of Moscow. For me, this is a simple interesting story without any problems or drama. Old Soviet movies teach us good deeds and the right lifestyle. And they also give us hope for life to become better.”