Rustam Minnikhanov meets with guests of Kazan international festival of Muslim cinema

The Kazan international festival of Muslim cinema aims to demonstrate peaceful nature of traditional Islam, the Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov stated at the meeting with guests of the VIII festival.

First deputy chief of the RT Presidential Staff Marat Muratov, Minister of culture Airat Sibagatullin took part in the meeting at the Kazan Kremlin. The meeting was held before opening of the festival.

Rustam Minnikhanov thanked people who organized the festival and guests for their work. “The festival is held for the 8th time, and we see that it is becoming more popular. There are many opinions about Islam in the modern world and the festival of Muslim cinema helps to demonstrate its peaceful nature,” the Tatarstan President said.

This year more than 450 films from 55 countries pretended to participate in the festival program.

President of the festival – chairman of the Russian Board of muftis Ravil Gainutdin thanked Rustam Minnikhanov for the opportunity to hold the festival of Muslim cinema in Kazan. “We are living in a difficult world today. The attitude to spirituality and morality has greatly changed. We try to use all opportunities to teach young generation spiritual and moral values,” Ravil Gainutdin said.

Deputy Minister of culture and tourism of the Turkish Republic Faruk Sahin conveyed greetings on behalf of the minister to the Tatarstan President. He noted that Turkish cinematographers seem to show greater interest towards the Kazan festival.

The filmmaker Egor Konchalovsky thanked organizers for the opportunity to show feature films that can hardly be commercially distributed.

“People must know more good things about each other to live in harmony and peace. Such festivals help to demonstrate uniqueness of the Islamic religion,” the Tatarstan President believes.