The Russian Geographical Society Unites Friends Film Festival dedicated to the 180th anniversary of the society has started in Moscow.

The first documentary film festival "The Russian Geographical Society unites friends" opened at the Moscow film center "October" on Monday, August 18. The event is dedicated to the 180th anniversary of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS).

"The first All-Russian film festival of the Russian Geographical Society "RGS unites friends" is being held for the first time in the history of the society. It is dedicated primarily to the round date — the 180th anniversary, today we are all celebrating. The festival doesn't just start today. Today is Geographer's Day, birthday, and opening day. Such an important day for society," said Ekaterina Kraikina, producer of the festival.

According to TV presenter Nikolai Tabashnikov, documentaries differ from fiction films in their greater honesty and truthfulness. He stressed that feature films allow for some inaccuracy, excesses and dramatization — all for the sake of the beauty of the artistic idea. In the documentary, the picture shown on the screen is as close to reality as possible.

"The influence of the Russian Geographical Society on the entire history of our country cannot be underestimated. And we want the audience to learn about it and appreciate it with the help of these 17 films," Tabashnikov said.

According to Leonid Kruglov, a documentary filmmaker and a member of the Russian Geographical Society, one of the unexpectedly difficult moments during filming turned out to be encounters with wild animals. According to him, during the work on the films, it was necessary to show various rare and unique animals, but not all the fauna reacted peacefully to people.

"It turned out that if you ask which is the most dangerous animal, everyone will say a polar bear. And we found out that no, not a polar bear, but a walrus, because we had several situations. One of them was very dangerous, when a walrus attacked our boat, which was supposed to land us for research on the shore, on Franz Josef Land. And the boat was just smashed to pieces, we could barely swim to shore. She was just deflating in front of my eyes, just a little more, and we couldn't have done anything," he shared his memories.

Landing on an ice floe inhabited by narwhals, according to the director, turned out to be safer. These animals allowed themselves to be photographed on camera from a fairly close distance.

"And this was done for the first time, as far as I know, among Russian documentary filmmakers," Kruglov said.

The festival takes place at the October Cinema and ends on August 25. In addition, the films will be shown at the Moskino cinemas on August 23 and from August 24 to August 27 as part of the Moscow International Film Week. From August 25 to 28, film screenings will take place at the Rosphoto Museum in St. Petersburg, and in the fall in the Crimea.

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Earlier, on August 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the Russian Geographical Society on its 180th anniversary. He expressed his gratitude to the representatives of the Russian Geographical Society for the discoveries and heroic expeditions that have given mankind a huge amount of knowledge about Eurasia, the Pacific region, as well as about the Arctic and Antarctica. The Head of State added that now, as throughout its history, the society organizes expeditions and implements various educational projects.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.