Chechnya Gets Ready to Make Movies

Chechnya is teaming up with Moscow’s legendary Mosfilm Studio to set up its own film industry.

The Chechen studio — named Chechenfilm in accordance with Soviet tradition — will shoot its first film after the signing of an cooperation agreement with Mosfilm later this month, its head, Inal Sheripov, told reporters Friday, Interfax reported.

It was unclear what that film would be about. Sheripov said Chechenfilm was set up this summer with the support of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and endowed with 500,000 rubles ($16,300).

He said the studio would be noncommercial, “oriented not at Hollywood’s but at European traditions.”

Mosfilm director Karen Shakhnazarov told the same news conference that his studio would send specialists to aid and train their Chechen colleagues. He said it was important to support a native film industry in the North Caucasus. “They have never participated in the country’s cinema life and now they will have their own voice,” he said.