Mikhalkov film to compete for Oscar

Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov's film Citadel, the second part of the sequel Utomliennye solntsem 2 (Burnt by the Sun 2) has been selected for the 2012 Oscar awards, Russian Oscar committee member Kirill Razlogov said on Tuesday. The Russian premiere of the film was held on May 5. Part one of Burnt by the Sun is a drama set in 1936 about a Bolshevik hero spending a final idyllic summer in his dacha amid the impending terror of Stalin's purges. The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1994 and was awarded best foreign-language film at the 1995 Academy Awards. The first part of the sequel, Exodus, had the highest-ever budget for a Russian film ($55 million) and was also screened at Cannes, but it received negative reviews from critics both in Russia and abroad. Mikhalkov's began his career as an actor in the 1963 romantic comedy Ya Shagayu po Moskve (Meet me in Moscow). His directorial debut, the 1973 war adventure Svoy sredi chuzhikh, chuzhoy sredi svoikh (At Home Among Strangers) was an instant hit. Apart from one Oscar, his other prestigious awards include a Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival and a Grand-Prix from Cannes.