Penza, 20 December 2011. PenzaNews. The movie “To Be” of the prisoners of the Penza strict regime penal colony IK-1 German Gulevich and Valery Chaika was awarded with a diploma of the first international film festival “Nadyezhda” in St. Petersburg and with a prize for disclosure of the topic “about those who are waiting”. A story that is told in the movie lasting 12 minutes is about the girlfriend and mother of the prisoner, who are looking forward for him to come back from imprisonment.

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German Gulevich, the author of the script for the film “To Be” said: “I wanted to show the heroic role of women in the destiny of prisoners in this movie. I managed to do this at large, but not outright. So there are still things to work on”.

According to him, the editing of the film was completed in one week. The shots made by the cameraman and the director of the film Valery Chaika and some episodes of daily life in the penal colony since 2007 were part of the picture.

German Gulevich said: “Those shots when you can see the life “on the loose” were made by my friend, and I am very thankful to her for that”.

Answering the question, how did he get the idea of creating such picture, German Gulevich noted that he has been writing scenarios of feasts and films during several years.

He admitted: “The most praiseworthy works of mine are scripts for some series of the serials “Kulagin and partners” and “Spouses”. I hope that after being back to freedom I will be able to go on doing the job I like. I have many projects planned”.

German Gulevich added as well that the best reward for winning the film festival is not the material prize but the possibility to perfect your skills and achieve new levels.

The deputy of the chief of IK-1 colony, Aleksey Balashov said that after receiving the certificate of the international film festival the governing body of the colony considers the possibility to buy new equipment and a studio for filming on the territory of the penitentiary.

The chief of the psychological laboratory of IK-1, Vasily Danilkin noted that the movie “To Be” has not been shown to all the prisoners of the colony yet.

“We didn’t have enough time before the film festival, we hardly managed to set the picture ready for the contest. Afterwards we decided not to demonstrate it until the decision of the jury is announced, not to put the evil eye on it. In the nearest future the film will be broadcasted in the local cable television of the colony”, - he said.

German Gulevich and Valery Chaika hope to participate in the second international film festival in St. Petersburg.

The first international film festival of “Nadyezhda” in St. Petersburg, where movies made by prisoners from different countries of the world were represented, took place in the theatre “Aleko” from December 9th to 13th . Over 200 pictures were demonstrated, 15 of them won in different nominations.

Prizes and certificates were awarded to the prisoners by the People’s Artist of Russia, the chairman of the Social council of St. Petersburg, Nikolay Burov.

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