Staff members of South Ural State University have held a presentation of the South Urals. Traces of Ages feature-documentary film at the State Museum of the South Ural History − in the House of Public Assembly.
The old mansion house on 98 Truda Street is the centre of the cultural life for Chelyabinsk residents. The famous Chelyabinsk writer and local historian Kirill Shishov holds literary evenings here. This time the topic of the meeting of the creative intelligentsia were the secrets of Arkaim. Speakers were invited to the literary evening, each of whom had something to tell about the famous settlement of the "Country of Towns" of the Bronze Age.
The first part of the event’s rich program was dedicated to the large-scale cinematographic work by SUSU staff and students – the presentation of the South Urals. Traces of Ages feature-documentary film. The author of the film script, press secretary of the SUSU rector, journalist Tatiana Stroganova spoke about the goals, objectives and results of the film project, covering a huge historical period − from the Stone Age to the present day.
"The filming was carried out by the SUSU-TV student television and radio company. The focus is on the colourful artistic image of the South Ural region, invented by director Matvey Sholokhov and captured by cameraman Daniil Rukavitsyn. According to the plot, the main character, student Sergei, reading the eight-volume History of the South Ural Region, sets off on a real-virtual journey into the depths of centuries.
After the premiere, open screenings of the South Urals. Traces of Ages film took place at various venues in the city of Chelyabinsk and in the Chelyabinsk region. The film could be watched in the Znamya and Kinomax.Ural cinemas, in the Russia Is My History historical park, as well as in the Tretyakov Gallery as part of the Primordial Russia festival.
The film was very warmly received by the audience, who thank the filmmakers for their bright and interesting work. This opinion is shared by film experts. The South Urals. Traces of Ages feature-documentary film continues its triumphal march through the venues of various film festivals and contests. The film’s creators already have more than twenty laureate diplomas at the international and federal levels. Among them is Student TEFI," Tatiana Stroganova shared the achievements of the SUSU filmmaking team.
The technical part of the presentation was provided by the Director of the SUSU-TV television company, executive producer of the film Sergei Gordienko. The audience was offered to watch a fragment of the South Urals. Traces of Ages film, dedicated to Arkaim.
After the screening, Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor of SUSU Andrey Epimakhov, who had been one of the scientific consultants in the process of creating the film, delivered a speech. The scientist spoke about his participation in the excavations of Arkaim and shared his thoughts about how our distant ancestors lived in the Bronze Age.
"None of the ancient settlements that we know of (and there are almost three dozen of them) has the glory that Arkaim has. Many circumstances came together, including social ones, thanks to which Arkaim was saved. I was lucky enough to excavate a small plot of it. And, of course, from the perspective of today, I am dissatisfied with what I did then.
Ideas about how archaeology should work have changed. Today we are filling out the picture of the life of the population of Arkaim, which we then painted with the most general strokes. Our picture is becoming more and more detailed. Ultimately, we want to see the fullness of life that was then in full swing in these places.
We will never learn the names, alas. We can only occasionally understand what actions were committed. But we are able to restore rituals, everything that is connected with a person, with his existence in this space, in this building. But this process takes time, and is, frankly speaking, quite expensive.
Arkaim has become a tourist site, and an object of various types of tourism, too. Our task is not to fight any ideas about Arkaim. A myth cannot be defeated with the help of rational knowledge. It exists in parallel with scientific knowledge, which is constantly multiplying."
The audience could not let the speaker go for a long time, asking more and more questions.
In the second part, Doctor of Sciences (Geography), Professor Nadezhda Rasskazova, writer Kirill Shishov and entomologist and artist Aleksandr Razboinikov introduced the guests of the creative evening to their literary and graphic works. Stories, poems and drawings were dedicated to Arkaim and Professor Gennady Zdanovich, who had led the excavations of the Sintashta complex.
It remains to add that not only the direct participants of the creative meeting were able to learn many interesting historical facts about Arkaim. The live broadcast of Kirill Shishov’s literary evening was streamed on the VKontakte page of the State Museum of the South Ural History.