“Flahertiana-2016” has a special program devoted to the Jury Members’ Films. Within the program the audience will see two films of Ben van Lieshout, an independent award-winning Dutch filmmaker, producer and scriptwriter. Van Lieshout will personally present his films on “Flahertiana”. The screenings are supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Russia.

The first film – “Inventory of the Motherland” – is a visually colorful and musical ode to Russia on the edge of the Revolution and Russia today. Authors of the film has clashed old photos and contemporary shooting following the steps of the photographer Prokudin-Gorsky in two tracks: down the rivers and on the railroad.

The second film of the Jury member Ben van Lieshout is a road movie “Sketches of Siberia”. The source of inspiration for creating this film was the diary of Norwegian traveller Fridtjof Nansen which he wrote in his expedition to the depths of Siberia. “Sketches of Siberia” were screened during the 38th Moscow International Film Festival.

Shooting in Russia started for Ben van Lieshout in 1997. The filmmaker comments on that: “For me Russia is a very intriguing country with a turbulent hist, strongly believed in the making/creating of a new society, and new human beings. For me and for western audiences it is also a rather unknown territory, and for filmmaking it is always very rewarding to bring an audience to unknown places and daily life situations. It is a possibility to hopefully get rid a little bit of prejudices and clichés”.