Dear friends from Pilot Studio,
we heard about the death of Alexander Tartasky and we're totally shocked and
sad. He was a member of the jury of the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film
in 2004 and we presented his studio pilot film in the context of our
festival. Alexander Tartasky quite often visited the Stuttgart festival and
we have always been very proud to have him here - in the South of Germany.
Films of the Pilot Film-studio were very successful in Stuttgart, too, and
won a lot of prizing from the beginning of the foundation of the studio.
This year, the film "Zhiharka" by Oleg Uzhinov from Pilot Studio, won the
Tricks for Kids-Award. And I could list a lot of more films which have been
very successful at the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film. Maybe these
films have been so successful because they combine humour and lightness with
something what we in Germany would call the "Russian soul" - a kind of
awareness of the own culture and a special melancholy. Possibly, these are
all clichés but we and the audience love the films of Pilot studio and
especially the films by Alexander Tartasky like "The Red Gates of Rashomon"
(2002). But it's not only the films what have been so impressing to us but
also the whole history of Pilot Film as first private animation studio in
Russia. There are only a few studios in East Europe which keep the right
balance between artistic work and commercial challenges (maybe Nuku Film and
Eesti Joonis Film from Estland could be added). I think Pilot Studio and
Alexander Tartasky managed this balance quite will and realized very
ambitious projects like the series of Russian fairytales.
There is another aspect which is very important to me concerning Pilot Film.
I think Alexander Tartasky had brought together a brilliant team of
different people and artists. I just want to mention Mikhail Aldashin,
Valentin Telegin or Konstantin Bronzit to name only a few. Alexander
Tartasky seemed to have created a special creative spirit which led the
studio to these outstanding results and film. I'm sure that the remaining
artists and animators will follow his path in the same spirit and we're
looking forward to receive wonderful submission from Pilot Studio for our
next festivals.
We're truely sad about this great loss for the international animation
world.
Best
Uli
Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Yours sincerely
Ulrich Wegenast
Künstlerischer Geschäftsführer / artistic director