Alexei Herman: “The Presidential Library – a source of material for historical films”

Historic holdings of the Presidential Library will be used to create feature films.

"Lenfilm" studio plans to create films that tell about the domestic history and reveal the unknown pages of the country. This work requires documents and materials that fairly and accurately reflect the era represented in the film. Collections of the Presidential Library could be helpful", said Alexei Herman Jr., director, a member of the Council for Culture and Arts under the President of the Russian Federation. He visited the Presidential Library and learned about the development of the national information, cultural and educational center.

"I know well the problem of access to historical materials. For example, when I was shooting "Garpastum" we lacked the original documents of the period associated with the First World War. Therefore, I believe that the creation of the digital Presidential Library which reveals Russian history and makes accessible documents is of great importance for Russia. These holdings should be integrated with the film industry", said Alexei Herman.

Movies of Herman Jr. are largely in tune with the subject area of development of the Presidential Library’s collections. His feature films, marked by prestigious international film festivals, are united by the theme of historical events and people's fates that are disclosed in their background. It also opens up prospects for cooperation, including the organization of the Cinema Club of the Presidential Library.

Now Alexei Herman together with screenwriter Svetlana Karmalita completes the reduction of his father's last film, "It's hard to be a god." "The sound is almost ready, but there is still some technical work to do on the image. We are finalizing everything so that in the fall we could schedule the premiere of the movie for wide distribution", said the director. According to him, after that he will return to his own project, the movie "Under the electric clouds."