On October 9, the presentation of the film “Wonderful Losers: A Different World” screened by Lithuanian director Arunas Matelis was held at Nizami Cinema Center.
According to the press service of the Union of Cinematographers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the presentation of the film shown at Cannes Film Festival in Baku was organized jointly by the Union of Cinematographers of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Culture.
Before the presentation of the film, the People`s Artist Shafiga Mammadova, Chairperson of the Union of Cinematographers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, made a speech and highly appreciated the presentation of such films in our country. Mentioning that the film was watched with a great interest in a number of festivals, including Cannes Film Festival, the People`s Artist expressed her gratitude to the people who worked hard to present the film to the cinema lovers in our country.
Shafiga Mammadova expressed her satisfaction with the presence of Arunas Matelis in our country, who came to the 9th European Film Festival organized jointly by the Representative Office of the European Union (EU) in Azerbaijan and embassies of the member countries of the organization, and representation of such a great film in one of the leading cinema centers in Baku, and wished the director success in his creative search.
Greeting everyone, A. Matelis said: “It is very difficult for me to talk about the film as a director. The film will be appreciated by the audience. This film, which has been shot for 8 years, has already been presented to the Oscars. I wanted to be a cyclist since my childhood, I witnessed everything in shootings. When we started to do researches for this film, we found out that the last time this topic was addressed was in 1973. We made arrangements about shooting this film in 5-8 years. This film is about cycling. 95% of athletes participating in the race sacrifice their lives to others – winners. We received permission about shooting the film in Italy. All the media wrote about it. This film is not about winners, but the people who helped them.”
Mentioning that new generation film-makers had formed over the past 3 years, the Lithuanian director said that he loves classics more. “The films of the new generation Lithuanian film-makers participate in international festivals. This film is made in Lithuania as well. Subtitles are in English because the film is being prepared for the international festival. The film, which was screened in 2017, was a laureate of various international festivals in Lithuania, Belarus, Estonia, Italy and Poland”, he said.
Later cinema lovers watched the film.
