Gay love drama awarded at London's Russian Film Festival

“Winter Journey" directed by Sergei Taramaev and Lubov Lvova received the "London Lion" Award at the Russian cinema festival in London, ITAR-TASS has reported.

The film "Winter Journey" is a tragic love story between two men: a conservatory student Eric (played by Alexey Frandetti) and the homeless Alexey (played Evgeniy Tkachuk). The motion picture was a director’s debut from the family of Sergei Taramaev and Lubov Lvova.

The film’s story line involving a gay love affair comes at a time when Russia has received global criticism after it passed an “anti-gay propaganda” law earlier this year. The law’s passage promoted calls to boycott the Sochi Olympic Winter Games, which are scheduled to start in early 2014.

Trailer with English subtitles. Source: Youtube

As Robbie Collin, one of the members of the jury and a film critic of The Daily Telegraph newspaper, said the decision to award this film with the London Lion prize "was not a political one and was motivated only by the movie’s artistic merit."

Previously, "Winter Journey" received the Window to Europe prize for best actor at the Vyborg Film Festival prize.

The Russian Film Festival was held in the United Kingdom for the seventh time, but it was the first time that a Russian film received the best film award. The Russian Ministry of Culture was a promoter of the festival.

This is abridged version of the article first published in Russian in NEWSRU.com.

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