Moscow, Feb 21 (AFP) - The cream of Moscow's political and artistic world flocked to the Kremlin late Saturday for the world premiere of the latest film by Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov, "The Barber of Siberia."
Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and the last Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev -- who was warmly applauded by the audience -- took their seats alongside American actresses Shirley MacLaine and Julia Ormond, the heroine of the movie.
Strict security measures meant the public had to wait 40 minutes in the cold outside the former congress hall of the Soviet Communist Party, transformed into a 6,000-seat cinema for the occasion.
Moscovites, though somewhat divided in their feelings about Mikhalkov, were drawn by an unprecedented massive publicity campaign to gather in front of the hall.
The publicity included items in the media and posters on the walls of the capital, as well as a religious service held Friday in Moscow in memory of the 130 Kremlin "junkers" killed by the Bolsheviks in 1917.
The theme of the "The Barber of Siberia" is a tragic love affair between a junker, a military cadet played by Oleg Menshikov, star of Mikhalkov's "Burnt by the Sun", and an American woman (Julia Ormond), in the peaceful reign of Tsar Alexander III.
Several scenes, including a military parade, were filmed in the Kremlin himself, thanks to the close links between Mikhalkov -- who took an evident pleasure in playing the tsar -- and the government.
Addressing the audience, Mikhalkov once again denied rumours that he had presidential ambitions, saying that "it is annoying when an artistic work is treated as a political phenomenon."
Mikhalkov said that "'The Barber of Siberia' is a film about love, about dignity and about the Russia we had and which we have not lost." It deals with "the preservation of the nation as a united whole." Men as well as women burst into tears as the film was shown, but critics of Mikhalkov were comforted in their view that his movies are destined for the foreign market.
"The Barber of Siberia" is a joint Franco-Russian production and nearly 70 percent of the dialogue is in English, which the director himself had to translate.
Relatively few cinema goers are likely to see the film outside Moscow, with the distribution network destroyed since the collapse of the Soviet Union and many theatres unable to meet the technical requirements.
The giant gas company Gazprom, one of the investors in the movie, is sending a bus containing the necessary equipment to the remoter regions so that it can be shown.
The premiere featured two giant Hermes silk scarves depicting scenes of tsarist Russia, an exhibition of costumes worn by the imperial family, the presentation of two perfumes conceived by Mikhalkov, and a massive firework display.

Submitted by Kay