Rudolf Nureyev. Island of His Dreams

Rudoph Nureyev! A legend of the ballet! It is difficult to count how many films have been produced about him, and how many books have been issued. And suddenly! Here is a new documentary! It seemed that we knew all the details of Rudolf's life, his non-stop dancing all over the world, his family, his friends, his surroundings...... But here we get to read an unknown page of his life, with the generous help of Evgenia Tirdatova and Neil McCartney who have produced the film "Rudolf Nureyev. Island of His Dreams". This is a Russian/Turkish co-production which focuses on the frequent trips that Nureyev made to Turkey between 1980 and 1990. Anyone who feels any element of beauty (the beauty of ballet dances and characters, the beauty of nature, the beauty of people's relationships) should see this lovely movie.

I was lucky enough to bump into this film at the Window to Europe Festival in Vyborg, which is Russia's second-most-important festival for national films, after Kinotavr. The film won the main prize in the "Window to the World" competition for international co-productions between Russian companies and foreign ones. To me it was an unexpected and pleasant surprise because it revealed a side of Nureyev that I had never seen before – relaxing with friends, sailing, swimming and engaging in other holiday activities without (apparently) a care in the world. And I was interested to learn about how Turkey became for him a sort of substitute for the homeland which he was not allowed to visit for more than 25 years. But over everything hangs our knowledge about what was going to happen to him. And the pain of the memories is evident in the interviews with his friends – particularly Ezio Frigerio.

I was a Rudolf Nureyev friend from the time of his learning in Leningrad. I have seen many films about Rudy and because of it I was fear to see something aesthetic wrong about his person. But I was nice astonished with the tact and quality all the frames connected with Rudy. Besides the movie made very talented, the storytellers are very open and natural, cameraman is brilliant, and the composition of the film (I mean the scenes of real life combined with the ballet documentary abstracts) is awesome. To my opinion all the people who loves the Rudof and the story of ballet have to go to see this wonderful film. I never knew very much about Rudolf's time in Turkey and it was the real new vision of the atmosphere there, all these bazaars, colorful carpets, and Rudolf bargains in the small shop... The Island story, the sea travels trying to find it, the ancient ruins and Rudolf, dancing in the amphitheater - unbelievable! And the sad final - the mosaic carpet on his grave - bride colorful memory of his bride colorful life!

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I saw this film at the "Diaghilev P.S." international festival of arts in St Petersburg in November 2016. A good location, given the long connection that Nureyev had with the city (then Leningrad), where he arrived in 1955 to begin training at the Vaganova Academy (Kirov Ballet school) under legendary ballet teacher Alexander Pushkin. And some of his friends from that time were there too! I really enjoyed watching the film. Particularly the home-movie material, which I had never seen before. The film-makers have done great work in collecting this and then blending it together with the present-day interviews with people who were obviously very close to Nureyev for a number of years. What a life he had!