Christopher Vourlias When she was growing up in Nalchik, the capital of Russia’s remote Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Kira Kovalenko wasn’t particularly interested in cinema.
She can cite few films that inspired her as a girl. “In all honesty, I never wanted to be a director,” she tells Variety.The 31-year-old filmmaker has traveled a long way since, as she prepares to bow her second feature, “Unclenching the Fists,” in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.
Produced by two-time Oscar nominee Alexander Rodnyansky (“Leviathan,” “Loveless”), her sophomore effort marks her as a rising talent in a country with a venerable tradition of arthouse auteurs.Sitting in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, Nalchik is far from Russia’s.
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